New Canaan Library has started planning for a new use or uses of the 1913 building, a sealed structure on the western edge of the organization’s campus.
Preserved and moved 115 feet from its original location as part of a Planning & Zoning Commission requirement as the “new” library building project that wrapped up three years ago, the legacy building has been used — on its exterior — as the site of a “Changemakers” art installation since 2024. (The building’s 115-foot relocation cost about $2.4 million.)
“We have formed some committees,” library CEO Ellen Sullivan Crovatto told members of the Board of Selectmen during a Jan. 20 budget presentation, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
She continued: “We have begun a lot of work around how we see using the space. We are excited for there to be some flexible use, some community use and—I think because we have had the opportunity to be in this building three years and really see what the needs are—it’s pretty clear to us how we would want to proceed and make sure we are meeting the appropriate needs of the community, but also creating an appropriate library use.”
What remains to be done is finalize those details and then bring ideas to wider community use for feedback, she said.
“Funding is definitely something we are going to be hoping to come to you [the town] for and ask and work with you to discuss what is possible,” Sullivan Crovatto said. “We may get there in the next couple of weeks to chat with some of the other bodies. But we really do think we are going to be seeking some help and support.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson urged the library to bring any such request to New Canaan’s funding bodies during the current budget process for fiscal year 2027.
The library is seeking an approximately $3.1 million grant from the town for next fiscal year, a 3.5% increase over current support ($105,500 more).
Joined by Library Director Cheryl Capitani, Sullivan Crovatto during the budget presentation reviewed visitation data (more than 1 million visitors since the February 2023 opening), FY26 achievements (including international recognition for the new building), notable speakers such as Elin Hilderbrand, Naomi Watts, Brook Shields, Ed Burns and Peggy Noonan, the “Conversations with Business Leaders” event with Emily Rubinfeld, use of the mezzanine-level MakerLab, Groove on the Green, children’s programs and key hires.
One of those key hires was a custodian at the library who has had a major impact, Sullivan Crovatto said while thanking the town for its contribution last year.
“It has made a world of difference,” she said.
The town’s grant also has helped address what had been a major staffing stressor for the library.
Sullivan Crovatto said, “We are more able to appropriately serve our community given the increase in our public use overall. We were able to counter some of that burnout effect that our staff was experiencing.”
Regarding the new spending request of the town, Sullivan Crovatto said that the town’s grant covers 94% of the library’s salaries.
The selectmen called for the library to ensure that all of the town’s expenses with respect to the organization are included in its figures, including for a full picture of year-over-year expenditures.
Library officials noted that the building’s coveted meeting and study rooms are booked at a rate of 50 meetings per day.
“That is an enormous amount of turnover,” Sullivan Crovatto said. “You will see going forward for us, we learned a lot in these last few years about how the community wants to use our space and as we strategically plan going forward for how we use our building as well as the legacy building, this will be an important factor in thinking through what the use case looks like for that new space.”
Selectman Steve Karl said that whenever he has walked into the library “it’s always packed with people.”
“It doesn’t matter what day it is, what day of the week it is,” he said. “It’s amazing how much use that building gets.”
The library unveiled its building project in January 2020, weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic set in here. As the time neared for the town to issue bonds to support the project with a $10 million grant, opponents of the expenditure—including many preservationists who wanted the library to preserve the original 1913 library and a 1930s-era addition in place—tried, and failed, to force a referendum vote.