Erica Jones-Wilson, principal librarian at the Corbit-Calloway Memorial Library mans the front desk of the state’s oldest free library.
ODESSA — One of the treasures of Delaware, and a bit of First State history in itself, is tucked away on a leafy residential street a quick walk away from Cantwell Tavern in Odessa.
The Corbit-Calloway Memorial Library, the oldest free library in Delaware open to everybody — including women and children — has been catering to the public since 1847.
“Wilmington Library was open before us, but you had to be male and pay a yearly subscription,” says director Katryna Cera-Proulx. “So this was the first one to be free to women and children. We have been in continuing, continuous existence since then.”
Originally on Main Street, the library moved several times before landing at 115 High Street in 1968. It’s a buzzing place.
Patrons come in and out for books and its children’s, arts, and literacy programs. They also come to access Corbitt-Callaway’s seed library, which was created through donations, and its biweekly crop swap days.
“Yesterday. there were almost 20 people here swapping stuff outside,” Cera-Proulx said. “Plants, tools, you know, things like that.”
This is part of the Corbitt-Calloway’s historic Delmarva Collection of books and records related to Delaware.
High library attendance
She said the library is one of the smallest in the state but has the third or fourth highest programming attendance among New Castle County’s 14 libraries.
Dolores Castaldo, a library assistant for 25 years, said the Corbit-Calloway prides itself on being friendly and family-oriented.
“I know that doesn’t sound like a lot,” she said.
But it likely did to the dad who needed a diaper when his baby had gone through the last one available, and Castaldo helped him fashion one out of paper towels.
That family focus is obvious when a patron comes in with a baby in a stroller and staff members walk over to coo over the infant.
At the heart of the library is its Leslie Calloway Delmarva Collection, a collection of books by Delaware and regional authors, U.S. Census information, and more, some dating back hundreds of years.
Library patrons and visitors from all over the country use the Delmarva Collection to research history and genealogy, Cera-Proulx said.
“If you know the last name of the person who was in your family 100, 200 years ago, there’s information there,” she said.
The library’s storage space is tight, and the books are not promoted partly to better protect the collection.
Some of the library’s oldest books can be found on the top rows of the reading room on the back of the building.
Calloway donated the land and built the current library as a 70-foot-by-30-foot brick colonial-style building.
“I don’t think she envisioned that we would continue adding something and that it would grow to spill out in all this area,” Cera-Proulx said.
The library’s historic items include pottery collections from the original building and hundreds of years-old books.
The Corbit-Calloway is part of the Delaware public library network, and anyone with a library card can check a book out there.
As the library has expanded, it’s added a children’s room that can be reconfigured for many programs and a new reading room on the book, where windows open on a lovely grassy view.
Cera-Proulx feels like the Corbit-Calloway library inspired her own career.
“I’ve been here 18 years. I started volunteering when I was 15. And now I just turned 33 and am the director now,” she said.
She went on to earn her master’s in library and Information Science from the University of South Florida.
The Corbitt-Calloway Memorial LIbrary maintains a seed library with donations by patrons, and a crop swap day.
The library hosts two big fundraisers each year.
The biggest is Mayfest, always held on the first Saturday in May. It usually draws about 3,000 people and even though it rained this year, about 1,500 showed up, Cera-Proulx said.
The library’s other fundraiser—its 3rd annual Fall Family Faire—will take place at the library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. It will feature chili-making and pecan pie contests.
Proceeds benefit the library’s maintenance and operational budget.
Other activities include live music, fall crafts, a moon bounce, train rides, a build-your-own scarecrow contest, face painting, games, a bake sale, a book sale, cider and donut sales, a 50/50 raffle, and displays by featured nonprofits and state agencies.
The Corbit-Calloway also appears to be a place where people might leave with more than a book.
Years ago, patrons came out to find a puppy in every car. Most patrons kept the pups, according to library legend.
“They got to go home with a puppy,” said Cera-Proulx. “I didn’t work here yet, and I think that was really serious and not fair.”
The library has three full-time workers and four part-time ones.
The newest is principal librarian Erica Jones-Wilson, who manages the library’s collection and programming while Cera-Proulx manages the operations.
“What I love about this place is definitely the community vibe, like the way that we focus on responding to the community’s needs, especially when it comes to the needs of children and seniors,” Jones-Wilson said. “I think that those are two really vulnerable populations that need extra support, not just in literacy, but in lifelong engagement and learning, which really improves a person’s life.”
The Corbit-Calloway Memorial Library hopes to mount a capital campaign soon to renovate part of its 1968 building and expand with more space to better serve the growing area.
Corbitt-Calloway hopes to mount a capital campaign soon to renovate the current space and expand with a new building on the same site.
She said the library won’t move because it owns the land it sits on.
Expansion will be necessary to serve the ever-growing number of new homes in the Middletown-Odessa-Townsend area, taking advantage of the farmland and fields.
“I saw on the MOT residence page a couple of weeks ago that we’re looking at 8,000 new homes in the next 10 years built below the canal,” Cera-Proulx said.
Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.
Share this Post