STAFFORD — A special event has been planned for next Saturday afternoon during the Stafford community’s annual Oktoberfest celebration on Oct. 7.
Board members charged with looking after the historic Nora E. Larabee Memorial Library at 108 N. Union St. in Stafford are hosting an “Open Door Celebration” ribbon-cutting event on the library steps, to honor the donors and others who have given toward the goal of restoring the building. The ribbon cutting is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Nancy Hildebrand and Shelly Brensing serve as co-chairs of the Preserving Nora’s Legacy Committee, as well as on the Heritage Trust Fund Grant Committee for the library, where Brensing is grant administrator.
The HTF was a major funding source that contributed $90,000 toward $300,000 tagged for renovation, which included a major reworking of the building’s 116-year-old limestone foundation, Hildebrand said. The rest was contributed by other grant awards, local patrons and others devoted to the library’s preservation. Other grants included: Strategic Economic Expansion and Development (SEED) through the Kansas Department of Commerce; Midwest Energy, South Central Community Foundation and Golden Belt Community Foundation.
“We are grateful to each and every one who gave of their time to bring these projects to completion,” Hildebrand noted. “That’s why we decided to have the ribbon-cutting during Oktoberfest, because many alumni return every year to that event and we wanted them to be able to celebrate with us in person.”
‘It started with a door’
The Legacy committee was formed in September 2021, in answer to a patron’s plan for fixing the building’s large, heavy front wood-and-glass door that was showing its age by refusing to open.
“There is a very kind citizen in our community who came into the library one day and asked why doesn’t the front door work,” Hildebrand noted. “She wanted it fixed, so she gave us our first donation, saying that if we would match this, ‘I’ll give you this money.’
“So, she actually then put us all to work.”
The board found out about the HTF grant. “Along with the wonderful people that have grown up in this library, we received a $90,000 grant,” she said. “With the help of two large donations, we were able to stretch the funding to almost $300,000.”
The original glass in the door was retained and placed in a much-lighter frame. It was no easy task; the beveled-glass pane alone weighs 150 pounds, Hildebrand noted.
With the door and the foundation and French drain rework, the funding has so far covered redoing the interior entry with four beveled-glass windows, new window blinds, work on the building’s north rest room to be ADA compliant, the front yard and exterior outlets.
Still to come are rework of the front entrance cement steps and sidewalk; three more beveled-glass surrounds, three basement windows and the stained glass surrounding Nora Larabee’s iconic stained-glass portrait.
Nora’s portrait window was restored in 2017.
About the library
The building catches one’s eye due to the beautiful dark red brick and detailed wood trim fashioned in a Corinthian style.
The most outstanding feature, however, is the one-of-a-kind stained glass portrait of Nora on the front of the building. The library is a memorial constructed by her parents; Nora Larabee died in 1904 of tuberculosis.
The building was designed by Charles E. Shepard, a leading architect in Kansas during the first part of the twentieth century. At that time, most libraries were not designed by architects. The Larabees also cooperated on a bank building in Stafford at about the same time.
Inside the 1906 National and State Historic library building are other must-see things including many other stained and lead glass windows, 20-foot tin ceilings, gargoyle rain spouts, paintings from local artists and 100-year-old mission style furniture.
