The new Little Free Library in Hellertown’s Water Street Park was designed and built by local architect Maria Diaz-Joves.
Want to enjoy the feel of a good book between your hands on a warm, sunny afternoon in the park?
If you’re visiting Hellertown’s Water Street Park you can now do that without the need to BYOB (“bring your own book”).
That’s because the park is now home to a Little Free Library, where local residents can leave a book, take a book, or simply borrow a book for an hour or two while visiting the park or the adjacent Saucon Rail Trail.
The Little Free Library–which is filled with dozens of diverse fiction and nonfiction titles–was planned developed under the auspices of the Hellertown Area Library.
Hellertown architect Maria Diaz-Joves, owner of a423 architecture, volunteered her design and construction expertise to create the small, eye-catching kiosk, which is located next to benches, flowers and shade trees in the park’s southeast corner.
The sign portion of the kiosk was made by Sign&Print.
HAL Outreach Services Coordinator Erin Clavier said residents began using the Little Free Library as soon as it was installed in late August, without any need to formally announce its opening.
Little Free Libraries are part of a growing movement around the country that is predicated on the concept of exchanging reading material via an honor system.
There is already a Little Free Library in Springtown which has its own Facebook page.
To find more locations of Litttle Free Libraries throughout the region and the country, visit the Little Free Library website.
The goal of the organization is “to promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide and to build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations,” according to the website. “There are nearly 40,000 Little Free Library book exchanges around the world, bringing curbside literacy home and sharing millions of books annually.”
Clavier stressed that the Little Free Library is low-volume and primarily meant for individual book exchanges. Larger donations of reading materials should still be made at the library, 409 Constitution Ave., Hellertown.
For questions or more information about the Hellertown Little Free Library, email Clavier at
ec******@he***************.org
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