Sitting in the Main Street Park in Wilton is a very little library.
The “library” is part of the Little Free Library movement, where community members create a public book exchange box. People can take a book at their leisure, and then when they’re done with it, either return it or replace it with a new offering.
The facade of Wilton’s little free library was designed by architect and Main Street Association member Alison Meltzer to look like the Wilton Public and Gregg Free Library and built by town Selectman Dan Donovan, who is also responsible for most of the other display cases in the Town Hall and on Main Street.
“I got suckered into it,” said Donovan with a chuckle in an interview last week.
“But it’s a kind of a neat idea – a library on the honor system.”
Donovan said his wife was in the park one day when she saw a mother and child snag a children’s book from the library and sit down to read it with her child.
That’s exactly the kinds of interactions that the library is meant for, he said.
Donovan volunteered about 75 hours of building work on the library, but will be compensated by the Main Street Association for some of his materials. The library was painted by Patsy Belt of Wilton.