The new Powell Library is not meant to look like just any library. 

Many of the interior walls throughout the 14,000 square foot space feature reclaimed wood from wind fences. Windows feature etchings of native grasses, and a covered wagon to evoke Powell’s pioneer spirit, which kids can play on, graces the children’s area. 

The centerpiece is the massive circulation desk made by Andy Childress, of AC Millworks in Cody, out of local wood, inlaid with area river rocks local residents brought to the library. 

“We're hoping that people can kind of pick up the Powell vibe when they come in,” Park County Library Director Karen Horner said. “And it doesn't just look like you just walked into the library, you know, in downtown Seattle.”

The new Powell Library is slated to open April 24, while the library will move out of its temporary home at Homesteader Hall in the Park County Fairgrounds at the end of March. 

That will give staff time, Horner said, to set up all the books and prepare the new library for opening day, which she said will be a celebration for the whole community. Events will be 1-5 p.m.

“We're hoping to have food trucks, make it a huge Friday,” she said, adding that as school gets out early that day, “we thought we'd maybe do it at one so that at least we could maybe involve the whole community.”

As it’s 105 years since Powell first had a library, Homesteader Museum Director Brandi Wright will also be on hand with historic information. 

That history will pair with the brand new feel of the building — Horner said pretty much everything is new, from chairs to book carts, while it’ll also be a new experience for the library employees to have a break room, something the old building lacked. 

Horner said the new building has so much more usable space to go with the open floor plan, ringed by windows and rooms. There are two smaller meeting rooms, a calming room for children and adults with disabilities, a large meeting room she said will serve a similar purpose to the Cody Library’s Grizzly Room, a couple of nooks within the teen section and even a spot up front at the entrance for the Friends of the Library to sell books. 

“It’s a very open concept, a lot different than the old library, a lot bigger, way more space,” Horner said. “[The old library] was so dark and cramped, and so much space we couldn't really do anything with. Now it's like every piece of this is usable space, a lot more storage, which is nice, because we never had that. Never had the big room.

“Groathouse [Construction] has done a great job.”

The old library, a building that had been added onto over the decades, was demolished in the summer of 2024, with work on the new building getting underway that fall. The work is primarily being funded by roughly $9.3 million in grants from the state (via federal Covid-era funds) and funds raised by the library foundation. Horner said they’re on track to use only a portion of the $3.2 million the Park County commissioners approved to be used for the project.