The Old Dora Library Today

Someone asked me the other day about the old Dora Library and if I had seen it in my trips down memory lane. I had to admit that I had completely forgotten about the library. I remember it as a kid. It was built during the Great Depression and local folks were hired by Franklin D. Roosevelt and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to do the construction. These meager government jobs kept people from starving to death in those days.
Buddy the Wonder Dog and I went down and weaved our way through the brush and brambles on a quest to find the old stone structure. To my amazement, the library is still standing…..Well, that might be a bit of a stretch. The roof and floor and some of the back wall are gone, but much of the structure is intact. The old rock fireplace looked as if it was ready to be fired up.
I began to wonder, just who owns that old building? I called the Mayor of Dora but he was not sure. I called the Walker County Courthouse but they said I'd have to come out there and show them where the place was located on the map before they could help. So one of my next excursions will be there. I might have to carry Buddy inside my backpack because they probably take a dim view of canines in the courthouse.
You all might think I'm crazy, but I was wondering if we could save the old Library. What would it take? What if the old building is available and could be purchased for a song? Do we know anyone with the skills that could help us revive that old building? What could we do with it once it was restored? It's too small and isolated to be of much use as a library, but it struck me as Buddy and I were sitting on the hearth that it was really peaceful there. Maybe it could be turned into a meditation room or a reading room. Maybe we could turn it into the world's smallest museum. In the winter we could build a fire on cold days and listen to the crackle of burning hickory and drink hot cidar.
I then got to thinking about the rest of Old Dora. I know that it is isolated and could probably never thrive like it once did, but maybe people could buy up what's left and rebuild what has since fallen in and turn it into an area where artists paint and musicians perform....a place that comes alive once a month with a Trade Day and main street fills with multi-colored tents. Street vendors selling arts, crafts, antiques and cotten candy would sit under their tents and howdy up with the crowd. Music would fill the air and street performers, face painters and people doing card tricks would entertains kids with balloons. And the people, who have long since moved away, would plan their vacations around one of the festivals and come home to see us all.
The little walk-through tunnel would be spick and span and we could all go through it and scream our heads off just to here the echo.
Who was it that once said "if you're going to dream, dream big"?Rick