The musical instruments recently on display here are gone, and after 75 years, the old Hauer Music Store is mostly empty. But not for long: As early as mid-May, construction crews will begin renovating the building, making it ready for about 50 Dayton Metro Library employees.
On Wednesday, the library opened up the doors of the building on Patterson Blvd. in Downtown Dayton so employees could see where they’ll be working next year. As part of a major system-wide reorganization and renovation project for Dayton Metro, the historic building will become the library system’s operations center.
David Slivken, director of the downtown library, says it’ll be a big change for the employees moving here.
“Those who will be here permanently are very excited to be here," he said. "It’ll be our operations center, it’ll be our technical services, our human resources, out IT department, and training and development.”
The operations center will occupy the second, third and fourth floors of the building, and in 2015, when renovations to the Third Street branch begin, many of the books there will be temporarily relocated to the first floor of the operations center. Library officials say that space could eventually be leased out.
The library's Community Engagement Manager, Jayne Klose, says plans are to keep as much of the building’s historical look as possible.
“Where there’s exposed brick, just clean it up. Obviously, where it’s already painted, we’ll have to give it a fresh coat of paint. And then we’ll be taking out the current stair tower on the north side, and building a new stair tower to meet current needs for elevators and so forth," she said.
Renovations are expected to be completed in February of 2015.
