Abench sculpture that has been a fixture in downtown Three Rivers for over a decade now has a new home at the Three Rivers Public Library (TRPL). The sculpture, which depicts a mother and child reading on a slatted bench, was presented to the library in a Wednesday ceremony. It was first donated in late 2009 during the completion of the East Alley, which connects the historic downtown storefronts to the parking lots on Joshua Drive.
For most of the time since, it sat beneath a tree there, facing Main Street. Earlier this year, following a successful fundraising campaign that was matched by funds from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, downtown advocates began a project to renovate the East Alley, and removed the bench to a Three Rivers Department of Public Works facility for safekeeping.
Three Rivers Downtown Development Authority (TRDDA) and Main Street Program staff and volunteers from its Design Committee installed new seating, overhead light strings, a stage, artwork, and other amenities with the intent to make the space more active and friendly to people spending time there. As the work progressed, TRDDA Executive Director Tricia Meyer said it became clear that the bench sculpture would have been lost amid the other, new features, and would have been at risk of being overlooked by passerby.
However, TRPL was finishing a multi-year renovation of the white-columned former Southern Michigan Bank and Trust building at Main and Moore Streets, and Design Committee volunteers felt a spot adjacent to its front door would be the perfect place for the bench. TRPL moved into the building in August from its previous facility on West Michigan Avenue, and has since opened to the public with capacity limitations and other pandemic precautions in place.
TRDDA Board Chair Andrew George said the idea to gift the bench to the library turned out to be a win. “Not only were we able to find a great home for it, but we were able to keep it downtown,” George said during a ceremony to present the bench to the library on Wednesday. “Here, it fits. The location is perfect,” Meyer said. “We wanted to do something for the library anyhow, just to show a token of our gratitude for them choosing to locate downtown.”
However, Meyer said, she first wanted to seek the assurance of the sculpture’s original donors, Tom and Jacqueline Meyer. “It would have been harder to do if the initial person that donated it had a problem with it, so I reached out to them,” Meyer said. “They said as long as it stays downtown, it represents their commitment to what they believe in and what they wanted to do downtown.”
The library is an appropriate place to go, Meyer said, “because of the mother and the child reading the book.” TRPL Acting Director Bobbi Schoon agreed. “It personifies a lot of what we do here,” she said. To complete the deal, TRDDA will be helping to replace the book that formed part of the sculpture, which went missing in its previous location. Schoon said she is unfazed by that. “That happens here too,” she said. “We’re used to replacing books.”
Schoon said, “of course, when the book is back, that’s a big part of it.” However, she said, the sculpture’s symbolic value is more important. Even though the bench represents relatively recent history, Schoon said, “preserving the history of the city of Three Rivers is of big importance to us, so having a piece of that here, a piece of that with this building that we got to renovate, it just goes right along with what’s important to us.”
The bench also represents one of the library’s primary goals in renovating and moving into the new building. “Part of what we wanted to do downtown, is be a part of downtown, so having that makes it feel like we’re here now,” Schoon said. “It’s exciting. I think it’s fantastic.”
So far, Schoon said TRPL staff and board members are happy with the move. “It’s been pretty amazing. Our traffic is steadily increasing, which is good. I mean, you want that. We’re still keeping an eye on our numbers, so we don’t have too many people in the building at a time, but we’re seeing more people knowing that we’re back and we’re open. Really, it’s been almost nothing but positive feedback on the new location. That’s all you can hope for after three years of work to get here,” Schoon said.
Service Specialist Madonna Snyder, who is TRPL’s newest hire, said, “it’s fun to watch people come through the door for the first time. They’re like kids in a candy store. We all have masks on, but you can see it in their eyes as they walk through the door for the first time.”
Meyer said, “we’re just excited to have the library back on the block.” George agreed. “It makes me happy that this is one more way that we can welcome the library downtown and begin to establish a meaningful, long relationship with the library,” he said. “I’m looking forward to more ways that we can combine our efforts between the TRDDA and the library.”
Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
