"If we had free rein, and we were designing it for full functionality, it would have been on the larger side, but knowing our restraints, they budgeted it and scaled it down to 9,250 square feet." Village Manager Doug Willardson said that to the Village Council in 2024, as The Pilot reported ahead of this year's groundbreaking.
That sentence explains how the new Given Memorial Library ended up the size it is. The same budget limits now apply to the building the library is leaving. Moving the library out clears the whole Cherokee Road building for the Tufts Archives, which plans to turn it into something the Village has never had, a public museum of its own history. The library is under construction, while the museum is still a floor plan with a funding gap.
Why the Library Could Not Stay on the Village Green
The Given Memorial Library opened in 1964. Sarah Given Larson donated the funds for the building, and Richard S. Tufts contributed the land. The Tufts Archives was added about a decade later. The Village took over the privately run library in 2022, on the condition that both the library and the Archives be expanded and modernized.
The first plans assumed the library would expand where it stood. Then the National Park Service released a comprehensive review of Pinehurst's national landmark district that strongly recommended against new freestanding construction in the area. The Pilot reported that this left the Village with one realistic option, a new site. Three sites were surveyed, and the Council chose a tract along Magnolia Road.
So the historic campus will keep its 1964 building, and the expansion it was promised happens a short drive away. Moving the library is what lets the Archives grow inside the existing walls.
What Is Rising Past the Curve on Magnolia Road
The groundbreaking was set for the site "just beyond the curve on Magnolia Road before the Pinehurst police station," according to The Pilot. The Village has not published a street number for the new building, so the curve and the police station are the best landmarks for now.
The Village's construction update page gives the basics:
- Size and design: 9,250 square feet, designed by Oakley Collier Architects
- Builder: M-Squared Construction, Inc., the low bidder among seven firms, awarded a $4.5 million contract in September 2025
- Total cost: furnishings, technology and equipment are paid for outside the base contract, and the Village projects the total will stay under the original $6 million estimate
- Planned features: more room for educational programs and youth activities, flexible meeting areas, updated technology, better accessibility, and design elements that reflect Pinehurst's character
Ground was broken in January 2026. Through the spring, crews cleared and graded the site, set up tree protection zones and put up construction fencing and screening. At the Village Council's August 11 work session, staff reported that the building pad, underground utilities, reinforcing steel and concrete slab were done, and site drainage was about 95 percent complete. Front and rear patio footings, metal framing and storefront beams were expected over the following month.
The contract calls for substantial completion within 365 days of commencement, which the Village says could mean completion "as early as March 2027." The Village's most recent wording, on its Archives renovation page, says only that the library is expected to open in 2027.
The Brick Sidewalk Comes First
Residents may be able to walk to the site before they can check out a book there. In June, the Village Council awarded Sanford Contractors an $824,650 contract for sidewalk and stormwater work along Rattlesnake Trail. The work connects to the new library and nearby development, and it redirects stormwater to the pond behind the Police Department so the library site's own stormwater pond does not get too deep in heavy rain.
The Village's bid notice describes the scope: about 1,200 linear feet of new 5-foot-wide brick sidewalk, about 200 linear feet of concrete box culvert and about 600 linear feet of 24-inch storm drain pipe along Rattlesnake Trail and Magnolia Road. At the award, the Village expected work to start in late summer and finish around Thanksgiving. That is a forecast. No progress report or detour notice has been posted. Staff were also asked to get a Duke Energy estimate for burying the overhead utility lines between NC 211 and McCaskill Road.
The new library will sit on the same road as Village Hall at 395 Magnolia Road, near the police station. The brick sidewalk is the first physical link between the new building and the Village offices around it.
The Building Left Behind Becomes a Museum on Paper
Once the library's books, programs and staff move out, the Archives will have the Cherokee Road building to itself. The Village Council decided to focus on renovating the existing building rather than pursuing a major expansion. The September 2026 floor plan, also prepared by Oakley Collier Architects, includes:
- A Village of Pinehurst History Museum
- A Welcome Center and display area
- A dedicated research room
- The Eric Nelson Meeting Room
- A community and events meeting space with digital display capabilities
- New accessible entrances and ramps, plus a wider staircase between floors
The renovation also covers building systems, environmental conditions, collection storage and fire protection. The Village describes the goal as "more than a storage facility for historic materials."
There is a lot to show. According to the Tufts Archives, the collection includes more than 85,000 digitized images, Donald Ross golf course plans, issues and covers of The Pinehurst Outlook, Tufts family papers, and James Walker Tufts' original marble and silver soda fountain. Most of that material now sits in a building whose limits on accessibility, exhibit space, storage and preservation are the reason for the project.
Between $2.5 Million and $4.1 Million
The Village has about $2.5 million set aside for the Archives renovation, and the current preliminary estimate is about $4.1 million. The design work explains part of that gap. At the August 11 meeting, the Council reviewed nine floor-plan options, and staff estimated that adding an elevator alone would cost about $500,000.
At its September 8 meeting, the Council chose to keep the design moving toward bidding and hold off on decisions about value engineering or more funding until it sees real construction prices next to confirmed donations, available Village funding and any possible use of fund balance. The Village's published sequence goes in this order:
- Complete architectural and engineering design
- Refine project costs and continue fundraising
- Bid the project to get actual construction pricing
- Review bids, funding and confirmed donations
- Set the final construction scope
- Begin renovation after the new Given Memorial Library is complete and open
The Archives project is not under construction, and the Village has not committed to spending the full estimate. Private donations are expected to help pay for exhibits and the visitor experience in particular. In January, the Sandhills Sentinel reported that the Village would likely pay for the core renovation, with private donations coordinated through the Given Tufts Foundation used to enhance the museum experience. Willardson also told the Council that neither renovation estimate at the time included a full museum-style exhibit installation.
That sequence matters for anyone who uses the campus. Renovation of the Cherokee Road building cannot start until the library has moved to Magnolia Road. So the Archives will stay in its current setting through at least the library's 2027 opening.
What Still Happens at the Old Building This Fall
Until then, the 1964 building is still a working library. The Village's calendar of events lists these upcoming programs at Given Memorial Library:
- Playful Learning: drop-in open play for ages 0 to 3, Tuesdays October 13, 20 and 27 and November 3, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Story Time: stories, songs and activities for preschoolers, Thursdays October 15, 22 and 29 and November 5, 10 to 11 a.m.
- Kid's Saturday: a monthly themed craft and social event for ages 3 to 10, November 7, 10 a.m. to noon
The Tufts Archives is open to residents, visitors, researchers and students, and both admission and research help are free. People come to trace family history, research a historic property or study the history of golf. That is also where the soda fountain and the Donald Ross plans can be seen for now, before the floor plan becomes a museum.
If you own one of the historic homes the Archives helps document, or you are weighing a property near the Given-Tufts campus or the new Magnolia Road library, I would be glad to share what I know about how these projects fit into daily life in the Village. Cherry Amanatidis offers calm, well-informed guidance whenever you are ready. Let's Connect.
