The Great Jane Addams Library Flood

I’ve written about my years as head librarian at Jane Addams,   small  vocational high school in the Bronx.   (See Magazines for the Principal and  The Diary of a Young Girl)

Here’s another story.

Because of our large student body for many years our school had two sessions and all students and faculty were either early or late.   It happened I was on late session the year of the great Jane Addams library flood.

That fateful morning as I parked in the teachers’ lot I thought it strange that no students were in front of the school or on the steps waiting for the late session bell.   For a minute I thought I may have made a mistake – as I once did! –  and had gotten up and headed for work forgetting it was a Saturday.  But there were other cars in the parking lot and so surely it was a school day.

And then I saw Eileen, my principal,  standing at the front door.  “I was waiting for you to break some bad news before you go down to library.”   she said.“Early this morning the custodian discovered that overnight something triggered the sprinkler system in the basement.   I’m sorry to tell you your beautiful new library is flooded.   We had to evacuate the students and the Department of Ed sent a cleaning crew that are already at work  down there.”

Our school had recently undergone an extensive renovation and the library had been relocated to a larger space in the refurbished basement where there were also several new classrooms and offices.   Eileen walked downstairs with me to see the extent of the damage,  and for many days to follow I walked around in a bit of a shock.

Then while the cleaning crew did their work,  my library colleague Merlene and I had an enormous task of our own.   We had to check every one of the thousands of books for even the slightest bit of mold.   Because mold can be a health hazard for some,  all the wet,  smelly,  and moldy books had to be discarded,  and thus probably two-thirds of our collection had to go.

I applied for a grant to replace what was lost,  the new books arrived,  and eventually the library looked and functioned normally once again.

But for quite some time I had recurring nightmares about that great Jane Addams library flood,  and I saw myself floating in a sea of moldy books!

– Dana Susan Lehrman