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The Twinbrook Library has changed in 50 years, including a move, renovations and advancements in technology, but the community's love for the facility has remained constant.

"This library is an extremely important and vital aspect of our community," Jacquie Kubin, president of the Friends of the Twinbrook Library, said Saturday during the library's golden anniversary celebration. "We serve a very diverse group of people and we offer services much beyond the taking out of a library book. We provide a sense of wellness and oneness amongst our very large neighborhood where we have people from all corners of the globe."

Along with enjoying cake, a magic show and other activities, residents shared their favorite library memories. Originally set for early May, the celebration was postponed when nearby Rockville High School was closed due to a case of swine flu last spring.

Teresa B. Lachin, a historian for Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd., gave a short history of the library through photographs and memorabilia, with some residents adding their own stories.

The Twinbrook Citizens Association and other community members began lobbying the county for a library in 1958, she said. Twinbrook was being served by a bookmobile, but residents felt that a library would continue to create a sense of identity in what was then a growing community in a small town.

"One of the signatures of a community is having a library," Lachin said, adding residents provided a list of reasons for having the facility, including population growth, preventing juvenile delinquency and serving as a "bulwark against the Cold War."

Located in southeast Rockville and wrapped around Veirs Mill Road and Twinbrook Parkway, the Twinbrook community began to sprout up following World War II. It was designed as a community of moderately priced starter homes for returning veterans.

Eleven thousand residents now live around the Twinbrook Library, said JoAnn Grbach, a City of Rockville spokeswoman. The city boasts about 50,000 residents.

On May 1, 1959, the community watched as the Twinbrook Library opened in rented quarters in the basement of what is now American Legion Post 86 at 2013 Veirs Mill Road. It was the first library to open in Rockville; the Rockville Library, located downtown, did not open until 1971.

Mark Gochnour, branch manager of the Poolesville Library, remembers spending many happy afternoons in the library as a child. He would return years later to serve as a librarian from 1973 to 1977.

"My mom would come over after bowling at the Twinbrook bowling alley's duckpin leagues on Tuesdays and we'd go and visit the library and check out books and then go off to afternoon kindergarten," the Germantown resident said. "It was a unique establishment and I loved going there as a little kid."

Even though they had their library, residents continued searching for a permanent, free-standing location. The county evaluated four sites and through the efforts of the Twinbrook Citizens Association and other residents, the community got its first choice – a site at 202 Meadow Hall Drive, Lachin said.

The facility, which was dedicated in spring 1975, was designed by Keyes Lethbridge & Condon, a Washington, D.C., architecture firm, she said.

The library has been there ever since.

Things at the library remained mostly quiet for nearly two decades, but that all changed in 1992 when the county said it might close the library due to budget problems, Lachin said.

John Tyner, a longtime Twinbrook resident and treasurer of Friends of the Twinbrook Library, said the community was horrified and staged a rally at the library.

"We had the entire City Council, we had the county executive and members of the County Council all here in effect saying that we know what the budget is, but we need to keep this library open because at that time they were saying they'd move it all to Aspen Hill or downtown Rockville," he said.

Tyner said the front parking lot was packed and county officials eventually relented.

Twinbrook would go through another major change a few years later when the facility was renovated. The library closed its doors in April 1999 and reopened in June 2000 with a new heating and cooling system, an elevator, a children's program area, a quiet study room and additional open spaces.

Dianne Whitaker, Twinbrook's branch manager, said the library would not be where it is today without the community's loyalty.

"We have a dedicated group of people who really support the library and give it a lot of attention and it's really great to have a community that is so involved with it," she said.

To learn more about Twinbrook Library and its programs, call 240-777-0240 or visit http://www

.montgomerycountymd.gov/Apps/

Libraries/branchinfo/tw.asp.