
"On Nov. 12, 1944, Private First Class Foster Joseph Sayers, a 20-year-old Infantryman from Pennsylvania, was killed while serving in combat with the 90th Infantry Division in France. He was awarded the Medal of Honor. His cit... VIEW ORIGINAL
FORT BENNING, Ga., (March 2 2016) -- In December, Sayers Memorial Library closed for business at its Wold Avenue address, where it had been serving Fort Benning Families since 1944.
The library reopened last month, minus the historic name, in Building 70 on Holtz Street, off Sightseeing Road, adjacent to the Benning Brew Pub. For the time being - and maybe forever - the facility is branded Family and MWR Library, as it belongs to the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation. But the Holtz Street location is temporary; the library will find a permanent residence in Building 2783 on Eckel Avenue when renovations on that building are completed next year.
The move was "necessary and bittersweet," said James Shoemaker, chief of the Community Recreation Division of DFMWR.
When it closed, Sayers Library was believed to be the last historic building on the installation being used for its original purpose. Library resources had long "outgrown" the space. The move to Building 2783 will nearly double the space available for books, computers, meeting spaces, reading rooms, music centers and more.
The name Sayers stays with the building back on Wold, where it was officially and permanently dedicated to the memory of Pfc. Foster Joseph Sayers in 1944. Sayers was a 20-year-old Pennsylvanian who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously after being killed in combat with the 90th Infantry Division in France.
"It's hard to think of our library as anything other than 'Sayers.' It feels a little bit like losing our history. It was our identity," said Shoemaker, who arrived at Fort Benning as a Soldier in 1991. "But we couldn't continue to serve our Soldiers and our Families adequately in that small space. We needed to move; we just didn't want to, and expansion didn't make sense, fiscally, because we have the space elsewhere."
In its current location, the library has temporarily suspended some of its programs and clubs, but computers and free wireless Internet are available.
Renovations on the historic Sayers Hall will be completed this spring, at which point MWR Bingo will relocate from Marne Road.
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