Bowman Library Celebrates 20 years

The celebration of Bowman’s 20 years will continue on Saturday, July 17, with live outdoor music, a photobooth, Mattie’s Mobile Soft Serve, displays, and tours of the library. Come on July 14 for the commemorative ribbon-cutting and visit the library again on July 17, between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm for lots of family fun!

A library in Frederick County was a dream for the Handley Library staff and board for many years before it made its way onto the County’s Comprehensive Improvement Plan (CIP) in the early 1990s. As the library moved up the list of CIP projects, a “small temporary library” in the form of a bookmobile opened on July 3, 1996. It operated two days each week from the parking lot of Trinity Lutheran Church in Stephens City and alternating Saturdays in the Food Lion parking lot. The church also allowed the library to hold story times in their social hall during the summer.
A building site on Tasker Road in Stephens City eventually was selected and the public saw preliminary floor plans for the library in January 1999. When additional costs for furniture, site preparation, and VDOT highway entrance requirements threatened cuts in the size of the building and the materials, a Frederick County businessman stepped in with a gift of $500,000. That generous contribution allowed the library to be built to original specifications. In recognition of that gift, the building was named for James L. Bowman and his late wife, Mary Jane Bowman.
Together with the Clarke County Library in Berryville and the Handley Library in Winchester, the Mary Jane and James L. Bowman Library became the third location in the Handley Regional Library System when it opened on July 16, 2001.
This past year, Frederick County completed a walking trail around the adjacent lake, and partnered with the library to add a StoryWalk. In July that walk will be displaying pictures and the story of how Bowman Library came to be.