BRUNSWICK

The two front doors at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick were rededicated to former Town Manager John P. Bibber — who passed away in 2015 at the age of 88 — on Tuesday afternoon.

Bibber’s wife, Betty Bibber, was on hand for the ceremony, along with her three daughters and nearly 30 others. Bibber was the first to unveil the restored doors, which were originally crafted in 1904 and are located in the front of the building at the original Pleasant Street entrance. The doors lead to the library’s “Quiet Zone” and haven’t been used regularly since the early ’70s.

Though the entrance won’t be open to the public for the foreseeable future, librarian Joyce Schmitt hopes library volunteers will help man the doors come spring so that folks can use the entrance as it was originally intended. The current entrance is located on the side of the building.

“After the ’72 additions, the doors were no longer used,” said Schmitt. “The focus of the library changed and there was nobody staffing this entrance. This area became a quiet zone for reading, and it’s stayed that way to this day.”

The doors, which were painted white up until the early ’70s but had been stained wood grain ever since, got a fresh makeover from Precision Millwork in Cumberland Foreside and are in their best condition in years.

Bibber believes the time was right to refresh the doors.

“When I first looked at the doors there was a noticeable space, and a draft was coming through,” said Bibber, whose daughter Paula works at the library and whose late husband was involved in the library his entire life. “I wanted to fix it, but it took awhile to get the project going. But the crew did a wonderful job. They fixed the space and now they’ll probably save some money on oil.”

Bibber, who also recently donated money for the library’s clock, said that the rededication of the doors to her late husband made sense because “he was always fixing things, his mother was a trustee at the library and he grew up reading here, and he was on the budget committee.”

“I had an amount of money to put into the library, and I wanted to do something here for my husband, in his memory,” Bibber said.

John P. Bibber served as town manager from 1961-1989.

Many of the 30 people on hand for the rededication were elderly folks who grew up with the Bibber family. There was a photo album next to the doors that chronicled the many transformations that the doors and the library itself made through the years, which was a main attraction.

“This is why it’s so powerful,” said Library Director Elisabeth Doucett, when referencing the photos and the town that they represent. “This is our shared history together, and these doors are just a way of walking into that shared history.”

bgoodridge@timesrecord.com