by Julie Gowel ·
Friday, April 24, 2026
Voters at Annual Town Meeting will be asked to consider Article 13.7, a recommendation from the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to spend $242,000 to replace the floors in the Harvard Public Library’s Volunteers Hall and reading room. That part of the library was constructed in 1877, and the floors that need replacing are original to the structure.
The project covers roughly 3,000 square feet of flooring and includes not only replacement of the surface boards, but also subfloor repairs and finish carpentry. Because the building is historically significant, the work must comply with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.
Library officials and volunteers point to a combination of age, wear, and safety concerns as the driving force behind the project. Pete Jackson, who chaired the building committee during the 2006–2007 renovation and now volunteers in a facilities role as well as the point person for the warrant article and renovation project, said the issue has been developing for years.
“There are a couple places on the floor that flex too much,” said Jackson. “After many years of sanding down, the nails are starting to come through. It’s a safety hazard.” Jackson himself has performed many of those repairs, nailing and gluing loose boards as well as trying to hold splintering pieces together with masking tape.
Volunteers Hall, in particular, sees a great deal of traffic and is of special concern to Jackson, as well as Library Director Mary Wilson. “The library held 457 ‘live in-person’ programs in fiscal year 2025 alone,” said Wilson. “Ninety-five percent were held in Volunteers Hall.”
According to Wilson, that number does not include programs run by outside organizations such as the Warner Free Lecture series. “We had one Warner Free Lecture that was a square dance, and we had to say to them politely, ‘It has to be a walking thing. You’re not going to get any hop, skip, and jump going on here simply because we don’t know the floor will stand it.’”
Children’s librarian Abby Kingsbury has similar concerns. On the third Thursday of every month, she hosts a toddler and caregiver disco party in Volunteers Hall. “We have babies, toddlers, and their grownups dancing on that floor for an hour,” she said. “I tell people children [must] wear their shoes during the disco party because some people try to take them off. There’s some nails that stick up and splinters of wood. I don’t want anybody getting hurt.”
When asked about the high cost of the project, Jackson said there were a number of factors that contribute to the hefty price tag. First is the scope of the work. Nearly 3,000 square feet is a lot of wood to replace, he said. While the current flooring is yellow pine, Jackson said the replacement flooring will be white oak, stained to match the current color of the floors. He worked with the National Park Commission to find an acceptable replacement for the yellow pine since that wood varietal is not recommended for high traffic areas.
Additionally, Jackson said the budget includes subcontractors needed to complete the renovation of the floors such as an architect, engineer, and carpenters.
Since the library is a municipal building, the subcontractors must be paid the fair market wage, which is an amount set by the Department of Labor for public works projects. In Massachusetts, the prevailing wage for carpenters is a minimum of $80 per hour, which is significantly higher than what an average homeowner would pay to do the same work in a residential property.
Because conditions beneath the surface of the floors in Volunteers Hall and the reading room are not fully known, the project includes allowances for additional work. “We don’t know what we’re going to get into until we open it up,” said Jackson. He noted that any funds not used for the renovation would be returned to Harvard’s Community Preservation Fund.
The result, Jackson, Wilson, and Kingsbury all agreed, will be a safer and more reliable space for public use.
What happens if the article is voted down at Town Meeting? “We just keep coming back until somebody pays for it,” said Jackson. “There’s no way around it. It still needs to be replaced. We’ll come back again, whether it’s a capital program or CPC.”
“[It’s about] safety, plain and simple,” said Wilson. “We don’t know how safe the floors are. There’s enough concern that it feels like the time has come.”