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Marathon, Texas is home to the smallest accredited library in the state, but not for long

The library is currently about 810 square feet, but after 70 years, the "heart of the community" is quadrupling in size to about 3,500 square feet.

MARATHON, Texas — The Marathon Public Library is the smallest accredited library in the state of Texas, but after 70 years, they won't be holding that distinction for much longer.

"I mean, the books on the ceiling are not all the way to the ceiling because we want it," said Erin Albright, board president of Marathon Public Library.

Book by book and brick by brick this little library has been in the heart of Marathon for the past 70 years.

"At 810 feet, we are the smallest accredited library in Texas," Albright said.

According to the library, that's the only thing about this library that is small.

And as this library shows, there’s only so many pages a single story can handle.

"It's a nice claim to fame," Albright said. "But we're bursting at the seams now."

There are currently almost 9,000 books in the library, much more than how many were on the first page of this story.

"Marathon Public Library was built in 1954," Albright said. "And we served as a branch of Alpine Public Library until 2013. Much of what you see in here remains the same from the 50s. And in 2013, Alpine was facing some budget cuts, so they were considering closing the Marathon branch."

However, that wasn't happening on Marathon's watch.

"And the community really came together to rally and save our library," Alrbight said.

"So what we ended up doing was turning it into a 501C3 nonprofit on its own," said Mary Beth Schaefer, vice president of the board. "Now it's its own entity and we're able to basically save the library for the people that live here."

Because some things are worth saving.

If you ask the 400 people of Marathon, this small building is definitely worth the rally.

"Many of the teachers and the parents here said that it's the center of the town and the cultural epicenter," Albright said. "So we really focus on filling in some of those gaps that are missing in our community."

And due to that importance and need from the community, this library is getting a much-needed upgrade.

"So we're expanding from, like I said, about 800 square feet to about 3500 square feet," Schaefer said. "We're working with an award-winning architect out of Dallas, Dan Shipley, and we're finally going to be able to, I think you know, accommodate all the people and services and things that we need to now."

The library has come a long way since almost closing down more than 10 years ago.

"When we first started in 2013, the bottom rows on all of these bookshelves were completely empty, and we had one children's program," Albright said. "We used to joke, the board members, our employees would ask for pens and we were like, scrounge and be like, 'hold on, we'll bring some from home', like we had such a small budget and just to see how we've grown over these years and the possibility of our expansion and what that will bring to the community, I'm super excited to see it."

Let’s just say they can afford more than just one pen now, as they’ve raised almost $2.5 million for the renovations.

"It's really cool that we've had this designation as the smallest library accredited library in Texas for a while. But I think we're ready to find a pair of pants that fits us," Schaefer said.

That pair of pants is quadruple the size of the pair they wear now.

And while the first chapter was written 70 years ago, it's finally time for the much-awaited next chapter.

The plan is for them to move into the rest of the library in December with it being finally finished in May 2025.

In addition to the library, Marathon is also renovating the Marathon History Museum that’s right next door. That museum is currently the oldest schoolhouse in Brewster County.

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