Brief Tour of the Morristown & Morris Township Library

Last week, the New Jersey Library Association's History and Preservation Section met at the fully renovated Morristown & Morris Township Library. Because my parents are locals, I was familiar with the library prior to the May 3, 2010 explosion that damaged the historic 1917 and 1930 wings of the building. The Newsletter of the North Jersey History & Genealogy Center of the Morristown & Morris Township Library does an excellent job of documenting the experience of the librarians/archivists that day, as well as the steps taken along the way to protect and preserve the archival materials in that part of the library. If you start at the March 2010 issue and read through the seven subsequent issues, you will see how these professionals persevered and continued their good work even though they were displaced and the vast majority of their materials were stored off site.

I was very excited to see the kinds of changes that had taken place throughout the library. It was updated in many ways, but yet, remained true to the style of the building, right down to the door knobs specially made to mimic the windows (see the photo below, my apologies for the strange angle).

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

Our host for the tour, Chad Leinaweaver, is the Assistant Library Director. He is pretty new to the library, and wasn't there when the explosion happened. In the photo below, Chad is taking our group through the Preservation Lab, in the basement (not far from the meeting room, where we began our journey). The conservator is an outside contractor who uses this lovely space to work on a variety of projects. 

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

As we walked through the building, Chad said that the biggest blessing after no one being hurt was that the library had taken out extensive insurance on the building, its holdings, and, most importantly, for code upgrades. The code upgrades made up a huge chunk of the overall cost, he said. Because the 1917 wing had been built in a "fireproof" way, it had to undergo extensive asbestos abatement. Materials had to be thrown out, unfortunately.

The photo below shows the new ceiling that had to be built in the "Friends" of the Library room, which took most of the damage. Chad told us that this room, in the 1930s wing, had its doors blown nearly off their hinges by the explosion -- the steel doors curled back on their hinges like tops of sardine cans. We all were enormously grateful that the fire alarm had gone off in advance, and everyone had emptied the building beforehand.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

All of the water pipes are new, as are some of the gas pipes. All the the shelving had to be replaced. The Friends lost all of their book sale materials. The explosion caused massive flooding to the basement, including special collections. The archives room itself, miraculously, was safe, but emptied of all collections because although the materials were stored high enough up on the shelves not to be directly affected, there was water that would likely be standing while the major clean-up occurred.

Behind the far wall, the library added a Sprinkler Room. One of the major code upgrades was the installation of an updated sprinkler system. The library also added a gas detection system.

Upstairs, in the Reference area, there were many changes. Below is a photo of the stacks area of Reference.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

If you search Google Images for Morristown & Morris Township Library explosion, you will find "before" photos of the room above, as well as those taken during the clean-up efforts. It had been tightly arranged with many stacks. During the renovation, the staff decided to open up the room more, so that patrons could enjoy its natural beauty, while still finding the materials they needed. Additionally, the renovation gave the librarians the opportunity to weed out some of the previously unused materials they had intended to do, but hadn't yet had the time.

From the perspective of the above photo, looking to one's right shows the other end of Reference, as well as a footbridge above the first floor. In the photo below, Chad shows a few H&P section members some of the changes to the room. He mentioned that some of the weeded items from the area were replaced with digital materials.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

I'm sorry that I was unable to take good photographs of the beautiful stained glass in the building. However, I hope that you will visit the Morristown and Morris Township Library to see it for yourself. During the restoration process upstairs, the librarians researched the original colors of the stained glass in the Reference rooms and were able to bring them to life in a vibrant and attractive way.

About midway through Reference is the entry to the 1930s wing of the building. It is home to the South Street or main entrance to the building, beautiful wood carvings and stained glass, and the original firescreen for the fireplace (see the photos below). For more information on the architecture of the building, visit the library's site here.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

At what seemed like the end of the tour, I asked Chad if we could see Special Collections, since that's our area of expertise. He said, "Sure!" and shared the remainder of the tour with Mary McMahon, outgoing President of the H&P section.

In the photo below, behold the beauty that is the North Jersey History & Genealogy Center and Special Collections reading room of the library. The far walls, which you cannot see in this photo, are lined with encapsulated, antique wall maps.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

Now for my favorite part -- behind the scenes, inside special collections and the archives. Directly inside the offices, right before the processing area, was a vertical file cabinet I had not seen before in an archive (photo below). 

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

You sometimes see these in doctors' offices or in hospitals, but not often in special collections. Because these are only working files, and not archival files, it's not controversial. However, this system is not recommended for irreplaceable items due to the possibility of materials being caught in the machine as it cycles through shelves of folders.

On our way to the collections, we walked through the processing area, where a few in-process collections were stored (see photo below).

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

I didn't take many photos within the archives room because the library just got their collections back from storage, and were sorting out spacing and labeling. However, we did get into the vault and art bins, which held some treasures. Someday, I will go back, and Mary will show me some of the treasures in the collections. But for now, a final photo of their John De Pol collections (see photo below).

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

The take-home message for me during our April 4 tour of the Morristown and Morris Township Library was that sometimes, great destruction can lead to great improvements. That, and make sure to have very good insurance, especially for code upgrades.

For more information, visit the library here.