"Perfect, it's perfect," Gov. Tony Evers said after walking through the newly built New Richmond Community Library last January. That was before the shelves were full. The Hudson Star-Observer reported that he predicted the coffee shop operators would become "the most popular people in this city."
Ten months later, the building has a bigger title. The Wisconsin Library Association named New Richmond Community Library its 2026 Library of the Year. The association cited its service, innovation, community engagement and the connections it builds for residents of New Richmond and beyond. The library was honored at the WLA Awards and Honors Banquet on Oct. 22 in Middleton, according to the Star-Observer.
The library moved in during January, so this is its first full winter at 450 S. Arch Ave. The building is set up to be downtown New Richmond's base through the cold months. It stays open longer than the library's own posted hours, and it lends the gear you need to get outside and to check your house for drafts.
The hours on the library's door are not the building's hours
The library is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is closed Sunday.
Jewelltown Cafe is in the same building and keeps a longer schedule. It opens at 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday. Side by side, the two schedules look like this:
| Day | Jewelltown Cafe | Library |
|---|---|---|
| Monday–Thursday | 7 a.m.–8 p.m. | 9 a.m.–8 p.m. |
| Friday | 7 a.m.–6 p.m. | 9 a.m.–6 p.m. |
| Saturday | 8 a.m.–3 p.m. | 9 a.m.–3 p.m. |
| Sunday | 8 a.m.–noon | Closed |
From Monday through Saturday, the café closes when the library does. It opens two hours earlier on weekdays and an hour earlier on Saturday, and it also serves the Sunday morning when the library is closed. Monday through Thursday, that keeps the building in use for 13 hours a day. That's a lot of indoor time in a downtown where January doesn't offer many places to sit.
The menu is simple. Jewelltown serves its own roasted coffee, espresso drinks, baked goods and breakfast sandwiches all day. Its menu page says ice cream is sold only at the café, not at the roastery, and that baked goods change. The roastery is about five miles north of town at Highway 65 and County M in Star Prairie, and it keeps its own daytime hours. The downtown café is the one with evening hours.
The café is also one part of a bigger plan. The Star-Observer reported that the 30,000-square-foot library is more than three times the size of the old building. It shares the development with the coffee shop and 78 market-rate apartments upstairs at Archway Residences. "Our library was designed as a place people want to come to," New Richmond Alderman Mike Montello said in the Star-Observer's award coverage. The hours table shows that plan in practice.
The Library of Things checks out winter
The building keeps long hours, and the Library of Things sends a lot of winter out the door. Items are free to borrow. They have to be checked out and returned inside the library. Grouped by what a New Richmond winter calls for, the catalog includes:
- For getting outside: snowshoes, trekking poles, a camping hammock, a geocaching GPS kit, a metal detector and Park Packs. The library asks that snowshoes come back as dry and clean as possible.
- For the house itself: Xcel Energy draft-check and power-check meters, which help find where heat is escaping once the furnace is running every day.
- For staying in: Roku devices, Wi-Fi hotspots, projectors and screens, Binge Boxes and Memory Maker kits.
- For a full house over the holidays: board games, puzzles, yard games, Nintendo Switch, Wii and Xbox consoles, adult brain-game tablets, plus discovery kits, early-literacy kits and Launchpads for kids.
Checkout periods depend on the item, so planning matters. Some projectors and screens go out for just two days, Launchpads and game consoles for one week, and Park Packs and many outdoor items for two weeks. Borrowing a projector for a weekend gathering means picking it up close to the date. Snowshoes can stay out long enough to wait for the right snowfall.
The Star-Observer's award story named the Library of Things as one reason the WLA singled out New Richmond, along with programs from Kids Karaoke to rock balancing workshops.
A weekly rhythm built into the rooms
Long hours and loaned gear explain the building's reach. The regular schedule explains why people come back. The storytime page lists three recurring sessions: BabyTime on Thursdays at 10 a.m., Toddler Time on Thursdays at 11 a.m. and Little Learners on Fridays at 10 a.m. Thursday morning means two storytimes in a row, and the café has been open since 7.
The library has room for more than storytime. Its rooms page names the RCU Meeting Room, conference rooms 109, 117, 119 and 120, study rooms 125 and 126, breakout rooms 122 and 123, and Multipurpose Room 124. With that many bookable spaces, the building can host a study group, a club meeting and a public program at the same time. The old building, at about a third of the size, couldn't do that.
The fall program list shows the range. For the week this post goes up, the homepage lists a Friday, Oct. 30 showing of Disney's "Halloweentown" with a craft at 4 p.m. Two November programs are already posted:
- Tiny Art Show, Monday, Nov. 2, 3–5 p.m. Participants learn about famous painters, make a small artwork while supplies last, and can have their piece displayed in the library through November.
- Estate-planning series, Tuesdays, Nov. 3, 10 and 17, each at 3 p.m. The three sessions are sponsored by Eckberg Lammers Attorneys at Law. Each one requires its own registration, and you don't need to attend all three.
November and December reach past the front door
The library sits downtown, so the holiday calendar happens around it. In date order:
- Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.: The Doe On The Go Craft & Bake Sale at Five Loaves Food Shelf & Two Fish Thrift Store, 144 W. Third Street, a short walk from the library.
- Thursday, Dec. 3, 4–7 p.m.: Hometown Holiday downtown. Parade lineup starts at 4:30 p.m. behind Dick's Fresh Market on W. 5th Street, and the parade steps off at 6 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 9–11 a.m.: Breakfast with Santa at The Centre. It's free and runs on 15-minute registration slots, according to The Centre's special events page.
- December, date to come: The New Richmond Heritage Center says its Christmas Luncheon returns at the Bell-Tierney Farmhouse, with the day still to be announced on its events page.
Hometown Holiday shows the building's hours at work. The parade falls on a Thursday, one of the four nights the library and Jewelltown Cafe both stay open until 8 p.m. Families waiting for the 6 p.m. start can warm up at 450 S. Arch Ave. both before and after the parade passes.
On Dec. 12, Breakfast with Santa at The Centre starts at 9 a.m., the same time the library opens on Saturdays. Jewelltown Cafe starts serving at 8. In the Star-Observer's award coverage, John Thompson, director of the IFLS Library System, said the library "exemplifies" the idea of a community gathering space.
If you'd like to share your favorite corner of the new library, or talk through what downtown New Richmond's growth means for your own plans, Farida Karundeng would be glad to hear from you. You'll find more local notes on the New Richmond neighborhood page, and when you're ready, Let's Connect.
