Idaho librarian turned a massive 110-year-old tree in front of her house into a stunning library
Sharalee Armitage Howard gave life to a dying 110-year-old black cottonwood tree in front of her Idaho home. She turned it into a magical library with stone steps and lantern-style lamps. Her parent bought that house nearly 15 years ago, and the tree needed to come down as it was rotting and dying. Howard told Atlas Obscura that she had difficulty letting go of the tree as it was attached to many memories. The end came in November 2018, when a branch fell upon her son's car. Howard saw inside the tree and saw that the interior wood had deteriorated completely.
Even so, Howard wanted to breathe new life into the Tree. She said, "I thought: What if I kept the trunk part of it? What if we make it into one of those Little Free Libraries?" She continued, "Immediately I could envision the little steps going up to it. I knew I’d do a lot of features to make it match the house. You just have these ‘what if’ moments and then your brain starts figuring out how to make it work.” The Little Free Library initiative, created in Wisconsin in 2009 by the late Todd H. Bol, was designed to encourage literacy and community. They have a "take a book, share a book" concept.
Howard has been interested in Little Free Libraries, ever since making a freestanding one as an auction item for her children's school a few years ago. She works for the Coeur d’Alene Public Library and created that library with tiny decorative books. Howard designed a box to fit within the opening in the stump for her tree library. That box eventually became a functioning section of the library, inside which shelves and books were eventually installed. In the meanwhile, her husband and four children chose the titles for the row of decorative books. Classics such as Call of the Wild, Nancy Drew, and The Grapes of Wrath are included, as are modern favorites. Each book was restricted to three lines of seven letters each.
The shingled roof of the 10-foot-tall trunk stretches a bit beyond the sides. The books may be seen via a historic window-turned-door. The door itself has hardware that looks like it belongs in Middle Earth. On December 10, 2018, Howard posted her masterpiece on Facebook. Quickly, local and national media caught hold of this beautiful library and since then, it has attracted several visitors. Howard says, "There’s been a steady stream of cars. There’s literally been people waiting for other people to take their turn.” The objective of the Little Free Library, according to Howard, is essentially to amuse.
She says, "Some people think it’s just for kids, but I think adults are just as excited to stumble across a Little Free Library and find something that they want to read. It lets you be a kid. It didn’t need to be done. The tree didn’t need to be repurposed, but it’s magic."