Cherry Hill Library Opens Friendship Grove

A project more than three years in the making came to fruition Wednesday, as the Cherry Hill Library board formally dedicated Friendship Grove, an outdoor extension of the library that transformed an empty plot of grass into a meditative space where library patrons will be able to read and relax.

Gravel paths curve among cherry trees, and 11 benches edge the grove, which will be backed by wildflowers come springtime arrives.

“This outdoor addition simply adds a new layer to what makes this the heart of our town,” said Sara Lipsett, vice president of the township council.

The seeds of the grove germinated in 2009, when library board members held brainstorming sessions to figure out the next step for the library, focusing on the blank canvas that was the building’s rear lawn.

They considered everything from a children’s garden to an outdoor rock climbing area, said library board President Diane Koury Alessi.

“The ideas came and the ideas went,” she said.

The board finally settled on the idea of the grove, which was designed pro bono by Dan Scott of Wallace Landscape Associates and funded by donations from the Friends of the Library.

Current Friends of the Library co-presidents Madeline Gavin and Phyllis Burstein credited their predecessors with keeping the idea alive and seeing it through to fruition, and called it the ideal addition to the library.

“In the spring, when the trees begin to grow and the flowers are in bloom, it’s going to look positively beautiful,” Gavin said.

The group will recoup some of their money by accepting donations to dedicate the benches, bricks and trees that make up the grove, using the rest to help maintain the space.

A handful of those have already been dedicated, including one in memory of former library employee Brian DelGozzo, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 2010.

Several speakers memorialized DelGozzo, including former Mayor Susan Bass Levin.

“This is a library about people,” she said. “He loved the library, and we will miss him every single day.”