A Transformative Figure

When Catherine Creedon was hired as the director of the John Jermain Memorial Library almost 15 years ago, the library was at a crossroads. The historic Greek Revival building, designed by Augustus N. Allen and built in 1910 with funding provided by philanthropist Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, was already showing its age in the 1950s. By the 1990s, water was leaking through its Guastavino dome, its bricks were crumbling, and its shelves and technology were unable to meet the demands of what libraries had evolved into: community centers for learning and historic preservation, much more than mere depositories for books.

Despite a failed referendum to fund an expansion in 2004 and divisive views in Sag Harbor on whether the library should expand on its own property or focus on a piece of land it had purchased next to Mashashimuet Park, when Ms. Creedon was appointed director by a board led by Christiane Neuville in 2007, an inclusive and very public discussion was launched by the new leadership about the needs of the library and how its future should be shaped. It was a process that other municipal agencies looking for public support funding should model: Just two years later, voters in the Sag Harbor School District overwhelmingly supported a $10 million bond to expand the Main Street facility.

Ms. Creedon’s legacy at John Jermain Memorial Library is largely defined by that victory and the ensuing approval process — arduous at times — culminating in a reopening of the library in the summer of 2016. But her influence runs much deeper than bricks and mortar.

Early on, she prioritized ensuring equity and access at the library for the whole community, offering English language classes and working to diversify programming, expanding ways the library could support seniors, teens and children from all walks of life in and around Sag Harbor Village.

Ms. Creedon also fought to make the library a community center for the village, hosting public meetings and debates, gallery shows featuring famed local artists as well as young artists honing their craft at Pierson High School, and pursuing grant funding to support the library’s work archiving the history of Sag Harbor.

Ms. Creedon was not just a library director during her time at John Jermain Memorial Library — she was a community builder and transformative figure for Sag Harbor Village. The library board certainly has very big — and stylish — shoes to fill.