Richfield Township Library

History :

Opened at the beginning of 1965, the Richfield Township Library was located in the basement of the St. Helen Elementary School and was open for ten hours per week. Just two years later, a new 5200 sq. ft. community building for Richfield Township was dedicated in September of 1967 for housing the township offices, commercial recreations facilities and the library. The library was allocated a 24 X 15 sq. ft. room. In 1998, after nine years of fundraising, memorials, donations, monies received from state and county penal fines and the township itself and with the tireless work of the St. Helen Friends of the Library, ground was broken for a 802 sq. ft. addition.

Sharing the community building with the township has its benefits for the library. In December of 2005, a USDA grant was secured by the township. The library, along with the township offices and the police department received much-needed new equipment. The library received a new copy/fax machine, three new DSL flat-screen computers and a new telephone system. After the old computer dial-up system, the new high-speed computer system was a welcome improvement.

The town's rich history has been preserved in written form; in 1974, a native resident, Peggy Diss, set herself the task of writing a history of St. Helen and Richfield Township. In 1967, after extensive collection and classifying of material, "The Heritage of Richfield Township" was available for sale. The book begins with a chapter of the lumbering days when St. Helen was first settled. A chapter on actor Charlton Heston tells of his boyhood days in St, Helen as well as his return visits to the area. This book, along with it's 1994 updated version, "Time Marches On", are both sold in the library and have helped raise funds for operating expenses.