GORHAM – The South Windham Public Library, located on the Gorham side of the Presumpscot River since 1934, is set to close its doors in August due to lack of patrons.

The one-room library, which doesn’t have a bathroom or telephone but which is stocked to the brim with books, opened in the 1930s in what was the economic and cultural center of Windham. The Androscoggin Pulp and Paper Mill was situated across the river, along with thriving shops and markets. But with the economic and population shift from South Windham to North Windham and creation of another library in Windham Center close to the school complex, interest in the South Windham library has waned for decades.

Despite that, a stalwart crew of librarians and trustees have done their best to keep the library open. They’ve held annual fundraisers and worked to keep the structure in good shape. But with a damaging hailstorm, the death of a key librarian last summer and the failing health of another librarian, the trustees decided recently that the historic little library will close its doors Wednesday, Aug. 29.

The main supporters have been head librarian Lorraine Jonassen, who lives in a house adjacent to the structure and has health issues, and Esther Noble, who died last July.

“When Esther died, they lost their rudder. She was the vital part of it. And Lorraine is 90 now,” said David Tobin, 80, a lifetime South Windham resident whose father took him to the library once a week when he was a boy.

“It’s a shame, I guess it’s just a sign of the times. Think how many years it’s been there. And now to lose it. And once it’s gone, it’s gone. The ladies have done everything they can to preserve it, but they just can’t do it,” Tobin said.

Tobin’s wife, Joan, who was Noble’s sister, still has her library card and remembers fondly the times she would take her children to the library. She remembers when the library was far busier than today and an integral part of the once bustling South Windham/Little Falls community. Though the library was only open twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-4 p.m., area residents could bank on the doors being open at those times, she said.

“I’ve known Esther (Noble) to take her truck and plow when we had a storm so it would be opened that afternoon because people always knew the library would be opened. Esther worked on Wednesdays, and Lorraine worked on Mondays,” Joan Tobin said.

According to Jonassen, who owns the land where the library is situated, the building originally served as a hose storage house for the South Windham Fire Department. It was moved to its present location in 1934 and converted to a library. Jonassen and her now-deceased husband, Norman, bought the property from Scott Paper Co. in 1978 and sold the library building to the town of Gorham for $1 in 1992.

According to longtime library trustee Allene Bowler of Gorham, the towns of Gorham and Windham have split the costs of operating the library at about $3,000 a year, which covered heat and electricity. The trustees raised their own money to repaint the structure recently, she said. The collection of books will be split between the town’s two libraries, she added.

Since Gorham owns the structure but not the land, it will take possession and decide the historic building’s fate, Bowler said.

“Esther, she kept it alive, but we can’t do it anymore. And you can’t have the towns putting money in to something that’s not paying back on it,” Bowler said, referring to the dwindling number of patrons.

Bowler said the library has tried to reach out to prospective users but with little return. They’ve put fliers in stores and at the nearby senior living facility, Little Falls Landing, but got little interest.

“It’s such a nice little library and we have a good collection of books. It’s not like we don’t have a good collection. We’ve even tried the senior citizens across the river, had ads put up over there. We got two people to come over and they didn’t take out any books and never came back. So we’ve tried all avenues,” Bowler said.

Jonassen is likewise disappointed with the lack of users.

“We used to have a lot of children come but with children having laptops and (Amazon) Kindles, we do not have enough people coming to the library to justify keeping it open,” Jonassen said.

David Tobin wonders why the senior citizens don’t visit.

“Look just across the river, all those older people, and most older people don’t use computers, so I’m amazed they don’t use it more than they do. It’s too bad,” he said.

Barbara Keef, reference/technology librarian at the Windham Public Library in Windham Center, ties the lack of interest to a lack of awareness.

“It was my library when I was a kid. It’s where my best friend and I used to go to get our Nancy Drew books. But people are not aware it’s there. I think if you grew up in the area, you would know it’s there,” Keef said.

Windham Public Library’s head librarian, Inese Gruber, is sad to see the library’s doors closing.

“No matter how small, I think it’s always nice to have a little lending library in a community,” she said. “There’s a lot to be said about a little community library.”

The one-room South Windham Public Library, located on the Gorham side of the Presumpscot River, is set to close at the end of August after almost 80 years in operation. Lack of patrons is cited as the main reason for the closure.