Centre County library gets $750K grant for expansion project. See the plans

The Centre Hall Library recently received a major state grant that will be used to build an expansion that will more than double the building’s footprint.

The library, which is owned and operated by the Centre County Library & Historical Museum and located at 109 W. Beryl St. on the Centre Hall Elementary School’s land, was awarded a $750,000, dollar-for-dollar matching Keystone Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education Office of Commonwealth Libraries on April 3.

The Centre County commissioners announced and celebrated the grant during their Tuesday meeting.

With the grant award, library officials plan on adding a $2.4 million, roughly 2,500-square-foot expansion to the back of its building. That will not only more than double the space available in the library to over 5,000 square feet, but will also see a family bathroom, two new teen and children areas, a new meeting room with a wall divider and a new circulation desk added.

Additionally, the utility room that holds the building’s 30-year-old electrical, plumbing and HVAC infrastructure will be moved from the library’s second floor to a new location on the first floor of the existing building. A space in the existing building will also be transformed into a new study room, and the main entrance will be moved to the new addition.

“I just want to share how excited the staff is for this project,” library Branch Manager Kathleen Edwards said at Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting. “It’s been a long time coming and we definitely need the extra space. We’re just excited to be able to serve the Penns Valley community better with more programs, more books, more services — we’re very excited.”

Since opening in 1996, the library has amassed a collection of over 20,000 books and five public access computing workstations. Edwards and other stakeholders hope that the new addition will not only create more space for the books there — which Commissioner Mark Higgins said are already stacked “from floor to ceiling” — but will also solve the issue of holding events, programs and classes at the library without have a community space dedicated for those things.

The original design of the library was supposed to include a community meeting space, but that design never came to fruition, according to a “Case For Support” brochure that outlines the scope of the project.

“The lack of meeting space becomes a very clear issue during any of the 180+ library-sponsored programs every year,” the brochure reads. “During library programs, the increased number of people and resulting noise in the small space makes studying, working and even browsing for books difficult for other library visitors.”

While an exact timeline for the project was not shared, former Centre County Library & Historical Museum Executive Director Denise Sticha said Tuesday that she hopes ground will break in fall 2026, and that the project will be completed by fall 2027.

Sticha retired from her executive director post earlier this year, and was replaced in mid-March by Tina Zins.

Before any physical work can start though, the library must raise an additional $750,000 to match the grant total, although Sticha anticipates that being a non-issue.

“We are confident that we will be able to raise the money to do this project,” Sticha said, adding that she anticipates the additional funds to come from a combination of general fundraisers, gifts, the upcoming Centre Gives event and more.

The Centre Hall Library is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 1 p.m. to 7p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and is closed Sundays. More information about the library and its expansion project can be found on its website.