GREENFIELD — It was out with the old and in with the new on Saturday, as the Greenfield Public Library community bid farewell to the Leavitt-Hovey House during a goodbye party marking the building’s closure.
For the next month — from Monday, June 19, through Wednesday, July 12 — the library will be closed as its staff prepare for the grand opening of the new building, located next door on Main Street.
In 2019, seven years after the vision for a new Greenfield Public Library was first discussed, voters approved building a new library with a 61% positive vote. A $9.4 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and $2 million raised by the Greenfield Public Library Foundation cover more than half the cost of the new building, which was estimated at $19.5 million.
Construction of a new library came in the wake of the Leavitt-Hovey House’s basement, which…