Mill brought books to its library-less town

MRS. MILLER SAYS “SSSSH”: No giggling was allowed in the basement of Dwight Hall, where the Powell River Paper Mill’s community library operated for many decades starting in 1911. The City opened its first library in 1957 (and now, giggling is encouraged). Photo courtesy of the qathet Historical Museum & Archives

Memories of the Mill Part 1

In the summer of 2022, anyone with memories of the Powell River Paper Mill was invited to submit stories to a special project, which was coordinated by the Library and the Museum, and sponsored by the First Credit Union. The mill, of course, closed indefinitely in February of this year, after a 110-year-long run. qathet Living magazine will run a series, based on some of the stories heard, October through December.

BY MARK MERLINO ON BEHALF OF THE POWELL RIVER PUBLIC LIBRARY

The first library in Powell River was opened in 1911 and operated by the Powell River Company as a perk for its mill employees. This building on Maple Avenue in Townsite was used as both the Library and School House.

At first it was a subscription library, staffed by mill office workers, and the company rented a block of 500 books monthly from the Carnegie Library in Vancouver. Then in 1922, the Powell River Company purchased the first permanent collection of books for members and hired Mrs. Marie Miller to be the permanent librarian. She served faithfully in that role until 1949.

Membership was available to all residents of the Powell River district. To join the Powell River Company Library, you had to pay a deposit fee of $2.

What were people reading in the Powell River company library at this time? In 1924, people enjoyed reading the latest magazines and newspapers in the reading room. These included new copies of the Saturday Evening Post, the London Daily Mirror, Life Magazine, Scientific American, and National Geographic. Some of the most popular books that year were The Golden Cocoon by Ruth Cross, The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey and The Plastic Age by Percy Marks.

In 1927, the library moved to a larger location a short walk up from the mill in the basement of Dwight Hall, where it would remain for over five decades.

In the 1930s, the Library and its reading room were open from Monday to Saturday – 3 to 5:30 pm and 7 to 9 pm. In the new location, the library added some of the best reference material of the day – the Encyclopedia Britannica and the historians’ History of the World. The new Library had a permanent collection of 2,000 books and 200 books were part of a traveling Library that changed every four months.

The Dwight Hall basement was a daunting place for some of the children who went there. Bev Falconer remembers that there were wrought iron bars at the entryway and going into the Library felt like entering a lion’s den.

Inside was a very austere environment with long tables where people read. Silence was expected of anyone who entered the space and Mrs. Miller would shoosh anyone, adult or child, who spoke beyond a whisper. Another woman who grew up in Cranberry in the 30s recalls walking down with friends to the Dwight Hall Library in the wintertime to meet some boys. They stayed inside the Library because it was nice and warm, but as soon as they started to giggle, Mrs. Miller sent them out into the cold and they walked back up the hill to Cranberry.

The company library was an essential part of leisure for many residents of the small mill town. Betty Berger remembers that after school a group of children who lived in Westview would run down the hill from Henderson School to the Dwight Hall Library, just as it was opening. They would quickly find some books, check them out and then would run back up the hill to catch the school bus before it left.

Fran Forsythe remembers that, as a young child, she loved going through the cards inside of the children’s books in the Library, because the names of everyone who checked out the books were written there and she was curious to see which of her friends had read the books.

By 1938, the collection had grown to over 3,000 books and many new familiar magazine titles had appeared – including Maclean’s, Chatelaine and Canadian Geographic. Probably the most popular aspect of the Library was the reading room, where people sat and read the latest news in the newspaper or new magazine. Through the 1940s, the Powell River Company had a community policy expediting the purchase of new books for the Library, especially books about BC and the Pulp and Paper industry. During the Second World War, the Powell River Company Library donated hundreds of its library books to the Canadian armed forces.

One Tla’amin woman remembers that as a young girl in the early 1950s, that she loved reading books. One day, she asked her grandmother to take her to the company library in Townsite. Her grandmother replied that she couldn’t take her because they were not allowed to use it.

DESTINATION, LEARNING (FOR SOME): The library and schoolhouse shared a building on Maple. Tla’amin members weren’t welcome in the library until decades later.

Photo courtesy of the qathet Historical Museum & Archives

The girl then asked her teacher at the Sliammon Day School about books and the teacher picked up a new batch of books each week and gave them to her at school each Friday. Years later, she would have very positive experiences at school libraries and the public library and noted that it was a friendly environment with interesting activities with people with all sorts of interests.

The community was changing during the 1940s and many people started to move out of the company town in Townsite, but there were only a few cars in town and it was a long walk to Dwight Hall.

To meet the demand for books, volunteer-run community libraries, that were not owned by the mill, popped up. The first one was set up in Westview in 1942 in an upstairs room in the municipal building on Marine Avenue. In 1949, the Westview Library was relocated to the basement of the Westview School and was staffed by the PTA, but the new location ended in tragedy, as it was completely destroyed by an accidental fire in 1950. Karen Southern vividly remembers the fire that burned the Westview School and the library in its basement to the ground one night in April, 1950.

The age of the company library finally came to an end in December 1956 when the Powell River Public Library incorporated.

In January 1957, the Powell River Paper Company formally turned the library over to the municipality. Library service was later extended to all area residents, though the library would continue to use the Dwight Hall facility and material that came from the Powell River Company for many decades to come.