Manhattan's Library Lives Inside the High School. Here's What the Plan by Taylor Park Would Change

Why does the public library in a town of nearly 2,300 people open to the community at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday?

The library shares its building with a high school. The Manhattan Community Library operates inside Manhattan High School, and the school district runs the combined space as the Manhattan School & Community Library. A concept design the Town of Manhattan published in June would move the library into a new two-story building at 207 S. 6th St., next to Town Hall and facing Taylor Park, with the Manhattan Senior Center under the same roof. The whole design starts from one goal the planning committees put in writing: the library needs a space separate from the school.

The Hours You Already Work Around

The Manhattan Community Library's own site lists these community hours:

The school district's library page gives the same schedule and adds that Saturday hours don't run from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Story time is Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. The book club meets at 7 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month.

So a summer Saturday with the kids has no library stop, and a weekday morning visit only works on Fridays or for story time. Mayor Traig Howells told Montana State University that the library and the senior center now sit in separate buildings with little room to grow.

The senior center has had its own limits. Ahead of Give Big Gallatin Valley 2025, Belgrade News reported that the Manhattan Senior Center at 102 East Main Street had stopped serving on-site meals because it was short on volunteers and staff. Meals on Wheels deliveries continued, along with a men's coffee on Mondays at 9:30 a.m. and a women's coffee on Fridays at 10 a.m. That was the situation in spring 2025, so check with the center for its current schedule.

What the Committees Said the Building Is For

The concept design came out of six months of work. In January, the executive and planning committees, made up of people from the Senior Center, the library, town staff and the wider community, began with a visioning workshop. When asked why the town was taking this on, they wrote down four things: limited public space, a library that needs to get out of the school, a shared space that could connect generations, and the observation that the social and political will to build it already exists.

Their wish list was practical. It asked for rentable rooms that bring the town some income, a warming space in winter and a cooling space in summer, and a building that "works with and enhances the park." The fourth of six design goals reads simply: "Make the library the focal point of the building."

The square footage follows that goal. Here is how the June 18, 2026 concept divides roughly 14,700 square feet:

The library takes up more floor area than the community center and senior center combined. The plan includes a children's library, collections space, a commercial kitchen beside a dining room, meeting rooms, a community lounge and rentable office space. The design document says the dining room is there to hold meals run by the senior center.

Why It Went Up Instead of Shrinking

The lot shares a block with Town Hall, the Manhattan Police Department and two homes. A block of houses sits between it and Main Street. The parcel is zoned low-density residential, with a 26-foot height limit and setbacks of 25 feet in front, 10 feet in back and 8 feet on the sides.

Early test fits showed that a one-story building would have to give up program space to fit. The committees chose not to cut the program and agreed on a two-story design so the building would still meet the town's needs decades from now. The plan also assumes the town will go through an alley abandonment in a later phase so the community center can use that strip. Parking would be shared with Town Hall and with an improved lot by Taylor Park. The documents give no date for the parking work.

That location is where the plan changes daily life the most. The Taylor Park parking area sits right south of the site, and the park itself has baseball diamonds and a well-used picnic shelter. A walking path through the park leads to Parkhaven Retirement and Assisted Living. The concept puts a covered back porch on the southeast edge, facing the park. It is designed as an outdoor room that can be used three seasons a year, and the meeting rooms open onto it so events can move outside.

How Four Buildings Became One Roof

The professional design built on two semesters of work by students in MSU's Community Design Center, which wrapped up in fall 2025. In spring 2025, KBZK followed graduate students as they collected input around town, including at the senior center.

According to MSU's July 23, 2026 article, one student team's first design split the program across four connected buildings. Committee members then suggested putting everything under one roof. Howells told MSU:

"They touched upon all the things that were important to us. They didn't say, 'Oh, well, they don't know what they're talking about. We're going to do this.' They were truly engaged in listening to us and then putting it together."

The town later hired 45 Architecture & Interiors, working with Prospera, through a Montana Department of Commerce Opportunities in Rural Economies grant. At a public meeting at Manhattan High School on February 4, 2026, residents asked for daylight and a connection to the outdoors, places to read and work quietly, room for story hour, music, classes and games, and warm wood tones.

The Questions Residents Raised in June

The design team presented the concept at a second meeting at Manhattan High School on June 3, 2026. The concept design records the questions residents asked:

1. Who pays for operations and maintenance, and is there an estimate of that cost?
2. How many people can the building hold for a fundraising event?
3. Could it handle more growth in senior center programs later?
4. Does the community center get enough emphasis compared with the library and senior center?
5. Does anyone know the town's potential bonding capacity?
6. Could seniors have a separate entrance?
7. Will there be a park restroom to take pressure off the building's restrooms?

The published concept doesn't answer the operating-cost or bonding questions. They come down to money, and so does the rest of the project.

The Number and the Calendar

KJF Cost Studio priced the concept at $12,665,080 for a building of about 15,000 square feet, with roughly $9.21 million in hard costs and $3.46 million in soft costs. The estimate assumes construction starts in April 2028, lasts 12 months, and that costs rise an average of 4.75% a year until then. Spread across a town MSU describes as having just under 2,300 people, that comes to roughly $5,500 per resident. The figure is a concept-stage estimate meant for planning and funding discussions, not a final budget.

The concept design names fundraising and community support as the critical next steps. The Town of Manhattan homepage is taking donations in person at the Municipal Building, 207 S. 6th St., and online through the Manhattan MT Library Foundation. It describes them as tax deductible, publishes no campaign goal or running total, and gives 406-284-3235 for questions. The same page links to the brochure, conceptual drawings, program document and full cost estimate.

The Town Council's regular meetings at the Town Office are the public place to ask about the project, and the town's phone line can confirm the next date. On Friday, December 11, the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce's Christmas Stroll brings Santa, town decorations, food and children's activities to Manhattan.

If you own a home near Taylor Park or Town Hall and want to know how a civic project on your block fits into your property's long-term value, Brian Heck can walk you through the numbers calmly and in plain terms. Request a Home Valuation, and we'll start with the street you live on.