At the heart of Phillips is the library, and at the heart of the library is Hedy. Through her efforts the library moved from a very small room inside the Historical House to occupy the entire Whittemore school building. The library now has big sunny rooms, more than 12,000 books, four computers with internet access, a weekly book club, children's programs, and an upstairs thrift shop. Also upstairs is a room full of books for sale.

The story of how the library came to inhabit such a grand locale is a story of determination and town unity.

The Paul G. Whittemore building was built in 1894 and 75 classes graduated from the high school, with 18 more classes finishing middle school there. When it came time to raise the money to fix up the building for the library, the alumni of the school were a generous source of funds.

The town came out in full force as well, with hundreds of people donating time and money for the cause.

The library, under Hedy's direction, is truly the "Pride of Main Street."

And if you stop by, say hello to Hedy, or some other interesting townspeople -- Marion Wing, our most dedicated volunteer at 98 years old, sets a tone of lady-like kindliness; Marilyn Batchelder, with a flower in her hat, is writing a top-secret autobiography, which, when finished, might not alter the town's history, but could spice it up a bit; Anne Hutchens, a faithful volunteer, will tell you about her favorite new book in a New York accent that reveals her transplanted roots.

"There's always room for someone to get involved," said Hedy. "Right now we often have programs for young children, but there's no volunteer to do a regular children's reading hour. We'd love someone to commit to that."