At the Holly Hill Recycling Center, a shed is filled with cardboard boxes labeled fresh cucumbers, fresh tomatoes and fresh peppers.
Inside the boxes, however, there are no fresh vegetables—only books, hundreds of books that comprise Greenwich’s Book Swap Shed, now celebrating its 20th year of serving readers of all ages.
Doug Francefort, the designer and organizer of the Book Swap Shed, navigated his way into the smaller of two sheds and began to tick off the different genres of books that have made their way into his library.
“We have mysteries, regular fiction, children’s books, cookbooks, paperbacks, romance, classics, non-fiction, non-fiction oversized,” said Francefort. “They just keep on coming in. I don’t know where they all come from, but they keep coming.”
The 86-year-old volunteer can be seen at the sorting table organizing new arrivals every Friday and Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to noon.
Next to the shed used for stocking new books there’s another shed used as a walk-in library, fitting no more than six or seven people at a time. There is no library card required to visit the Book Swap Shed, as residents drop off and pick up books at their convenience and at no cost.
Francefort started recycling books in 1972 with nothing more than a few eight-foot tables at Holly Hill center. After retiring from Pitney Bowes, a global commerce company based in Stamford, Francefort designed a shed that would later be built by the town’s Department of Public Works.
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Book Swap Shed, which was built in September 1995.
“Just this year we’ve given away 20,000 books and we figure we have another 450 books leaving here per day,” said Lorrie Stapleton, a dedicated volunteer at the shed. “We donate books to Stamford, Bridgeport and we’ll soon be doing Norwalk.”
An estimated 14,000 children’s books have been donated this year to Childhood Learning Centers and DOMUS in Stamford, Greenwich’s Neighbor to Neighbor, and 35 Bridgeport schools.
Tables with oversized cook books, books on tape, DVD’s and CD’s sit in front of the shed every Friday and Saturday, sun, rain or snow, and on average the book swap will see 150 people per day.
“Every once in a while, we’ll get somebody sent from the Greenwich Library, because they didn’t have the book and suggested that they come down to the book shed,” Francefort said proudly. “Often, they are older books and sometimes we do have what they’re looking for.”
A volunteer for over 40 years in recycling books, Francefort knows his patrons and their reading preferences. Stacks of cookbooks align tables outside the shed while children’s books are stocked inside at a kid-friendly eye level.
“Every time I come here it’s a different selection,” said Ursula Healy, a regular at the book swap. “There are so many different options. There are very few pleasures in life, and theres nothing better to me than lying in bed and reading a book.”
For the Greenwich YMCA’s Childcare Center, the book shed is just a short walk away for a classroom of preschoolers. Some take one book, others take as many as they can carry.
Teachers use the book shed to fill their classroom libraries, and visitors are allowed to take up to 10 books per day.
Core volunteers of the book shed include Tom Cahill, Steve Boies, Jim Fahy, Jim Grout, Jim Santora, and Bob Bishop. Eleanor, Doug’s wife, supports the shed with danish and hot coffee year round.
“Doug is here at six o’clock in the morning every Friday and Saturday,” Stapleton said. “When it snows, he shovels. He’s just incredible. It’s his passion, and you can really tell.”
