Laurel readers returned to Seventh Street for Monday’s opening of the reinvigorated Laurel Branch Library, three years after the original branch’s closure.
The original brick building, part of the county’s Memorial Library System, was built in 1965 on land deeded to the county by the family of Charles Stanley, a 19th-century Laurel statesman who had served in the Confederate Army. While the library was closed, a smaller temporary library facility was located at 8101 Sandy Spring Road.
Michael Gannon, the library system’s chief operating officer, said construction on the new 31,000-square-foot facility began in May 2015 following repeated delays, which included difficulties in choosing a contractor. Costs were estimated around $14 million, Gannon said.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Andrew Michaels over at the Baltimore Sun