The Library That Is Still Growing
Some places are not finished yet. That is exactly the point.
The Library Diaries — Week 03 | Avon-Washington Township Public Library, Avon, Indiana
We pulled into the parking lot of Avon-Washington Township Public Library and the first thing I noticed was the construction fence. Orange cones, chain link, a skeleton of new walls going up right beside the original building. And sitting in the mulch directly in front of all of that concrete and scaffolding, completely unbothered, was a single pink coneflower. Just blooming. Just doing what it was meant to do, regardless of the chaos around it.
I took a picture of it before we even went inside. I always know when something is trying to tell me something.
"Some of the best things are still in the middle of becoming what they are going to be."
This is week three of our summer library tour, and I will be honest with you: this one surprised me. Avon is fifteen minutes from my front door. I have driven past this library more times than I can count. I have never walked through it with this kind of attention before. That is the thing about a ritual with intention behind it. It forces you to actually arrive somewhere you have technically been a hundred times.
A Hundred Years of Showing Up
Avon-Washington Township Public Library has been here since 1920. That is over a hundred years of this community walking through these doors, checking out books, asking questions, finding things out. And right now, in the summer of 2026, they are building more. A new addition is taking shape on the north side, stone pillars rising to match the original building. Something about watching a place that has existed for a century decide to keep growing made me feel a specific kind of hopeful.
The library sits at 498 N. Avon Ave. and serves the residents of Washington Township. It is one of the largest public libraries in Hendricks County. They have adult services, teen services, children's services, a business center, a resources and databases section, and a Huron Heritage Room dedicated to preserving the history of Avon-Washington Township. Local oral histories. Township records going back generations. You can stand in that room and understand that the land under your feet has a story that started long before you arrived on it. That is not a small thing.
Club 512: Where Teenagers Actually Want To Be
Cohen beelined for the elevator the second we walked in, and I want to tell you about that elevator because it is genuinely one of the most charming things I have encountered in a public building. Every floor button is labeled not by number but by destination. TEEN. CHILDREN. TECH. MTG RMS. It reads like a small map of everything a public library actually is. Not a building full of books. A building full of different kinds of people looking for different kinds of things, all under one roof, all welcome.
He pushed TEEN without even reading the options.
The teen space here is called Club 512, and it earns that name. Yellow chevron carpet that actually makes you feel something. Geometric blue upholstery that belongs in a mid-century modern furniture catalog. An egg-shaped pod chair by the window that teenagers will absolutely argue over. And then the gaming computers. Multiple of them, lined up, free to use. Cohen found a portal escape game and disappeared into it for the better part of an hour while I wandered the stacks below. This is, for the record, the ideal arrangement.
The Club 512 programming calendar was fanned out near the front desk: E-Sports League, Mario Party, Map Making, Crafting Connections, DIY PokeBalls. Someone at this library is paying close attention to what teenagers actually want to do, and then they are doing it. Teenagers do not want to be tolerated. They want to be invited. This library gets that.
"He pushed TEEN without even reading the other options. Some kids just know where they belong."
This Weeks Pick-Up
The Speed of Trust - Stephen M.R. Covey
I picked this one up off a display shelf near the adult section and it has been following me around ever since. Covey's whole premise is that trust is not just a soft, feel-good virtue. It is a measurable, economic force. When trust is high, things move fast and cost less. When trust is low, everything slows down and gets expensive. I have been building a business for years on relationships, on showing up consistently, on doing what I say I am going to do, and it was clarifying to have someone put language around the mechanics of why that actually works. I am only about a third of the way through it and I have already texted three people quotes from it. That is my personal review system and it has never failed me.
Avon Is Not Sleeping
Avon has grown up fast and it shows. The Ronald Reagan Parkway corridor is lined with every chain restaurant and big box store you could want, but the charm is in the quieter pockets. Avon Town Hall Park is right there if you want to stretch out after your visit. There is a trail system and a little creek and enough green space to shake off the screen time. If you are coming with kids and want to make a full morning of it, library first and then the park is a very good plan. You will be home by lunch and everyone will feel like they accomplished something.
A Teenager, A Portal Game, + An Elevator Button
Here is what actually happened on this particular Tuesday. I spent twenty minutes trying to get Cohen to look up from a computer game long enough to take one single photo with me. He agreed, under protest, and then immediately made the least photogenic face I have ever seen on a human child. I have professional photography equipment. I have eighteen+ years of experience. I could not get this boy to cooperate for thirty seconds.
He also, at one point, tried to go back to the car to the car to get his phone charger, got in the elevator, and came back up two minutes later to report that he had accidentally pressed CHILDREN instead of the ground floor and had to ride it back up with a very small person who asked him if he liked SpongeBob.
He said yes, by the way. He does like SpongeBob. He will be eleven on the 4th of July.
We checked out our books, argued mildly about where to eat lunch, settled on home. It was a perfect Tuesday.
Next week, a new library. Same ritual.
