Winter Haven Library

Where I Actually Leave The House
  

Feature where I post about random places I've been which focuses on places with books, conventions, and other random odds and ends with oodles of pictures, misc. madness, and fun (for me anyway!)

 

The Winter Haven Library

I was curious about this one since my boss at work mentioned how much she loves their Friends of the Library system. Instead of a wall or a once a year big sale, they have a small room dedicated to it. Their website here shows they do a large variety of programs for the community.

The first surprise is that the building is completely peach, but somehow that works. They have tons of palm trees on the outside landscape (yech ~ I dislike Palm trees), but overall the library is much larger than I figured for this town and attractive, especially inside. Winter Haven is a nice town, but not as big as Lakeland, so I was surprised to find the building maybe a little larger than the one here, just laid out completely differently.

I love the stained glass window on the outside. Stained glass windows usually work for anything, right?

Friends of The Library Book Room

I was especially curious about the Friends of the Library room, of course. When you walk in the hall, it is on your right side after the restrooms, well decorated with someone sitting outside with a long table and sales, as well as displays in the windows for the Halloween season. Love they did that. 

Most of the books were hardcovers, which I shy away from a bit unless it's something I really want. The prices varied - some of the shelves were all flat rate deals, some of the shelves had books priced according to what they were. My mom found an artwork book on cowboys and the country tradition, but it was priced too high for her tastes (23.00), which even seemed to surprise the volunteers inside. I found a few books I was happy to bring home (which I'll display in the Mailbox Monday post I really need to catch up on), and Melissa also found some books as well - things I seemed to sadly miss when doing my own browsing. After buying the books, I had to make yet another purchase when I saw they had a Superman book with some collected comics and a vintage cover. I eat that stuff up.

The Kid's Room

The Children's area is the heart of most libraries, and usually the more decorated, so it was the section I was most excited to see for the regular area. It was large and relaxing, although not decorated too creatively. There's plenty of books to choose from and a nice sitting areas for the children.

The above is the door/entrance to the YA/Teen Room.

Main Area

The main area is particularly stunning. We were in a hurry so I wish I could have gotten better pictures. It's a tall building, and the artwork is beautiful at the top. I like the cozy atmosphere. Some of the pictures were blurry and didn't turn out as well as I would have liked.

I wish you could see the artwork more clearly - each has a different scene and it circles around the entire room. I also like the stained glass lamps on the tables. The round circular desk at the entrance came through a bit blurry. The fountain is outside of the coffee shop, which was a delight and surprise to find in a library. I wish our local library had a coffee shop, I'd be hanging out there all the time!

By the doors they had two window displays, one for stamp collecting celebration and the other random mixes

Coffee Shop

Love the colors and it felt completely like fall in here. It smelled delicious too - like Cinnamon and coffee. Like how they have a good selection of teas as well. I'm telling you, think place was blissful. We got out drinks and then went to sit outside by the fountain. Ah, wonderful.

This covers the pictures and the start to our October trip. Hope you enjoyed them. The Winter Haven Library turned out to be a great library, special with it's offering from Friends of the  Library - such helpful volunteers who we got into great chats with, to their cozy coffee shop and large, open spaces. Does your library have something similar?