Drawings unveiled of new library wing that will house one of the country’s largest private maritime collections, plus 150,000 photos from renowned photographer

After more than two years of fundraising and planning, Brooklin’s Friend Memorial Library will begin construction in April on a multimillion-dollar expansion project that will double the library’s space and house its new Maritime Research Center, which supporters hope will further support Brooklin’s claim as “the boat-building capital of the world.”

“We’re really excited to be able to celebrate this ground breaking. It’s going to be an amazing improvement in the resources of the library,” said Steve Hindy, who became president of the library board in January. (Full disclosure: Hindy also serves on the board of directors of The Rising Tide.)

The target date to break ground for the expansion is expected to be during the last week of April.

When the project was first announced in 2024, library supporters said they hoped to raise $2.5 million to build an annex building adjoining the current building, make improvements in the original building, and increase the endowment by $1 million.

The capital campaign has now raised $3 million, but rising construction costs have pushed up the project’s estimated cost and supporters have set a revised goal of $4.1 million, Hindy said in an interview.

“We’ve got the money to make the project happen,” he said. “We will continue raising money to reach the total goal and build the endowment.”

Hindy said library leaders hope to have the new annex building shell enclosed by this fall so that interior work can continue through the winter and spring. They expect the new wing to open in 2027.  Blue Ledge Carpentry of Orland has been awarded the construction contract. Elliott Architects of Blue Hill are the project designers.

One of the catalysts for the library expansion was the decision by Jon Wilson, founder and longtime leader of the WoodenBoat School and WoodenBoat Magazine, to donate his collection of over 6,000 maritime books, plans and documents to the library.

Wilson’s collection is one of the largest private collections of maritime resources in the country. A section of the new building will house the collection, as well as more than 150,000 photographic slides donated by renowned marine photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz, who has been the principal photographer for the “Calendar of Wooden Boats” for more than 40 years. Once the annex is completed, Mendlowitz’s images will be scanned and digitized.

The library wing housing these collections will be named for Anne and Maynard Bray, who have also played key roles in the WoodenBoat organization. Anne, formerly WoodenBoat magazine’s research director, passed away in 2018. Maynard is a longtime writer and editor for WoodenBoat.

Library supporters anticipate that other private collectors of maritime books and artifacts are expected to join Wilson and Mendlowitz in donating their collections once they see that the research center is becoming a reality.

Such is the example of the late Guilford (Giffy) Full, a boat surveyor and Brooklin resident who died in 2024. Full donated his collection of maritime plans, books and documents to the research center before he passed away.

“It’s an international community of sailors and boat enthusiasts that converges on this place every year,” Hindy said. “And it’s a really important part of what makes this community what it is. The boat building community is a big part of why people come here, and having this resource will be very important to the town. And we will be making a lot of efforts to publicize the new library.”

“It will be a real resource for boatbuilders,” said Maynard Bray in an interview. “I think there will be lots of different groups who will take advantage of this–students at the WoodenBoat School, out-of-town visitors, sailors, boat builders.”

Catherine Nevin, the director of the library, said she is excited about many aspects of the new building, which will be connected to the existing building by a glass-walled atrium. She is especially enthusiastic about having a large reading room that can be used for multiple purposes, such as movies, presentations, speaking events and meetings. Hosting those types of events now requires the staff to move a number of heavy bookcases and store folding chairs in the library’s only bathroom.

Once the new wing is completed, the room at the rear of the current building will be used for children’s books and activities and will be named for the late Katharine White (1892-1977), the longtime New Yorker Magazine editor, wife of writer E.B. White, and avid supporter of the Friend Memorial Library.

As part of the expansion project, a grassy outdoor courtyard and open-air pergola will be built behind the current library building, providing a space for outdoor gatherings and events. The courtyard will be linked by a path through the woods to the Brooklin School.

The library’s name is often misspelled and mispronounced as “Friends’ Library,” but it is, in fact, the “Friend Memorial Library,” named in honor of Leslie and Robert Friend, two brothers born in Brooklin in the late 1800s who later moved to Massachusetts and made a fortune as the owners–with their other brother, Victor–of Friend’s Brick Oven Baked Beans.