AMHERST — It’s been a place housing a nationally recognized English as a second language program where immigrants might come, and where researchers arrive to study poets and writers including Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Robert Francis and Julius Lester. Town leaders also see the Jones Library as a foundation for the downtown business community, an attraction that brings people to Amherst center.

The library was the focus of a stop by U.S. Rep. James McGovern on May 3, who before meeting with business leaders and new business owners to learn about how the town is rebounding from the pandemic, made a formal presentation of more than $2 million in federal funding that will go toward the $43.5 million expansion and renovation project that will preserve the history of the 1928 building. The library is being renovated and modernized to be fully accessible and among the most climate-friendly libraries in Massachusetts as it’s expanded from 48,000 square feet to 63,000 square feet.

Of the money awarded, $1 million comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant program, which will be put toward a new garden level Humanities Center on the ground level. There, special collections and a room for the town’s Civil War plaques, containing the names of Black soldiers from the famed 54th Regiment, will be placed.

At the presentation, Town Councilor and Ancestral Bridges founder Anika Lopes, who grew up in town, spoke about the importance of the Jones Library as a community gathering place, but reflected on a time when her African American and Afro Indigenous heritage was not displayed, instead kept in boxes and made invisible. Under her Ancestral Bridges project, that is about to change.

“The Humanities Center will allow for a broader range of audience, participation and partnerships with other organizations, and add depth to the overall library culture,” Lopes said.

Both her late great-grandfather, born in 1896, and the founding members of the town’s historic Black churches would have a place to be recognized.

“By renovating and expanding the Jones Library, we honor the town’s full history,” Lopes said.

The other money is $1.11 million in funding through the end-of-year omnibus spending package, an earmark that was inserted by McGovern. That passed the House and Senate in December before being signed by President Joe Biden.

McGovern referenced the book-banning efforts underway elsewhere and how libraries can protect against those.

“That’s why today’s investment matters,” McGovern said. “In some places they might ban books, but in Amherst and Massachusetts, we embrace them, all of them,” McGovern said.

“Trust me when I say it’s not easy to secure funding in an appropriations bill or from the National Endowment for Humanities,” McGovern said.

Austin Sarat, president of the trustees, said the library has been a place for rich and poor, old and young, and English and non-English speakers. “What a fabulous day for Amherst, Massachusetts,” Sarat said.

State Rep. Mindy Domb said the library has been a place for people to learn, stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer, search for jobs and find security.

“The Jones Library is the civics center of our town,” Domb said, adding that it fights back against misinformation, insurrection and book banning.

“To me, this protects against local threats to democracy we face,” Domb said.

Library Director Sharon Sharry noted that the Jones received the largest of 24 similar National Endowment for Humanities grants so it can do a better job of telling the story of African American heritage in Amherst. The library is also getting support for the project from the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Eric Carle Museum and the Yiddish Book Center.

The purpose of the Humanities Center is to create a facility that can serve broader audiences with its collections and programs, by creating engaging exhibits, making local history artifacts more visible and accessible to young people, and providing program spaces for the library and community partners such as poetry, art walks and the Juneteenth celebration.

With the $2 million in federal grants, the library’s capital campaign has now raised nearly $5.8 million of the projected $14 million needed to raise for the project. Other money included in that total includes $2.3 million as part of a community campaign, a $1 million Community Preservation Act grant, and $96,000 from foundations and financial institutions.

A tour of downtown

Following the event, Gabrielle Gould, executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District, gave McGovern and his staff a tour of downtown, elaborating on the success that she has had in sitting down with landlords to discuss the value specific businesses can bring to the community. Her aim is always to diversify the food offerings, both in the type of cuisine, as well as the price points.

Gould said the BID has long supported the Jones Library project, as it did the successful $97.5 million elementary school project. The Jones, she said, is an economic driver.

“Bringing that up to spec and making it a welcoming space for all will make a huge difference for Amherst,” Gould said.

Starting at The Drake performance venue, Gould told McGovern that 70% of attendees there are coming from out of town, but it’s also been important to have it as a place local students and others can perform. “It’s been really, really incredible what this has done for the community,” Gould said.

Just 4% of the 104 storefronts in downtown are vacant and 47 restaurants are operating, which will be joined by the return of DP Dough, offering calzones and comfort food; and White Lion Brewery, which has a full kitchen. Both will be below The Drake.

The former Judie’s is becoming Amherst Oyster Bar, now under construction, the Amherst Burger Bar recently opened, where some wait in 30-minute lines to get a burger or ice cream; while Protocol, a new restaurant situated in the One East Pleasant mixed-use building, is getting good reviews.

“When you walk in here you no longer feel like you’re in Amherst,” Gould said.

McGovern appreciated what he was seeing, comparing the downtown to a similar 2015 walk, and the upgrades that have occurred since.

“This is great news that is happening,” McGovern said. “Downtown Amherst can be a destination, not just at night, but during the day, as well.”

He also noted that the success appears to be from executing a concept.

“They say it take as village, but it also takes a plan,” McGovern said.

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