Photo Description: Anchor Point Public Library patrons read in front of a fireplace and a mural painted by a local artist. In Anchor Point, the library offers an important “third place” option for locals and visitors alike to socialize. Photo courtesy of Anchor Point Public Library.

Anchor Point Library keeps the doors open to a valuable “third place”

Locals and seasonal visitors alike come to Anchor Point Public Library for more than books. They come for free Wi-Fi and access to computers, printers, and other technology. They use the meeting room for community gatherings. They access paper forms for heating assistance or to apply for their PFD. Sometimes, they come just to sit by the fireplace and enjoy some quiet time.

“We’re here to help educate the community, from newborn on up, and to provide things that people need,” described Library Director Deanna Thomas.

A vital “third place”

Like most libraries, Anchor Point Public Library serves as a valuable “third place” for its community — a space where people can socialize and find connection and community, with no barrier to entry. Photo courtesy of Anchor Point Public Library.

On Saturdays, a group of teen boys claims a table at the back of the library for their role-playing game. The boys started frequenting the library after being told they couldn’t hang out elsewhere.

“The first time they came, I had to set down the ground rules, but after that — they clean up after themselves. They’re very respectful,” Thomas said.

Like libraries all across Alaska, Anchor Point Library serves as a rare “third place” — a space that’s neither home nor work, a public spot that offers connection and community, where anyone can feel like they belong. While coffee shops and bookstores are considered third places, no-cost spaces like libraries offer barrier-free communal experiences.

Free third places can be especially important for teens, who often lack locations outside of home and school where they can hang out and find the kind of offline, social connection crucial to preventing feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Until recently, the laundromat across the street from the library served as a popular third place for Anchor Point.

“People did go there and socialize,” Thomas recalled. Sometimes after they started their laundry, they would wander across the street to hang out at the library.

When the laundromat closed, its patrons depended upon the library even more.

“We have a couch, and […] there’s a little fireplace and some furniture, so you can sit and just enjoy the silence. We have puzzles in the back, and we try to have a kid puzzle and an adult puzzle going at all times,” Thomas said.

A mural painted by a local and filled in by kids from the community fills the wall behind the fireplace. There’s always something happening — activities for children, story time and contests like “Cabin Fever Bingo,” meetings of community organizations. “We are more than books,” Thomas remarked in a recent social media post. “We are working hard to keep this lovely library open.”

The library serves about 2,300 people in the community year-round; the number ebbs and flows with seasonal visitors.

“We’re not big,” Thomas said. “We’re not huge, but we try.”

Closed for business

Last year, a 45-year-old septic system put this community resource at risk of disappearing. As Thomas wrote in her grant proposal for funding a new system: We fear that we will be forced to shut down the library.

“It stunk,” Thomas stated matter-of-factly when asked how the damaged septic system affected the library and its patrons.

“[The toilet] backed up one day, and it went underneath the wall, into the kids’ room. That carpet got wet, so my husband brought a fan over. I mean, we just had to close the library and go home. We can’t be there.”

Thomas reluctantly asked library patrons to leave. She posted a sign on the door letting people know the library was temporarily closed.

It wasn’t the first time a toilet overflow shut down the library, and it wouldn’t be the last.

Locals and visitors alike rely on Anchor Point Public Library for services like computer and Wi-Fi access, job search and application assistance, printing and copying, and more. Photo courtesy of Anchor Point Public Library.

The problem started when a car hit the septic tank’s access pipe. A temporary fix to the damage turned into a long-term problem when the technician hired to pump the tank began sucking up rocks, instead of liquid.

“You shouldn’t find rocks in your septic tank,” Thomas pointed out.

Over its 45-year life, the tank had rusted so badly, it had practically disintegrated. Meanwhile, the library’s location next to swampy land meant there was nowhere for the tank to leach filtered liquid the way it’s supposed to.

The bathroom flooded multiple times, causing damage to the floor and seeping into other areas of the library. Sewage swamped the parking lot on several occasions. Every two to three weeks, a technician had to pump the septic tank to guard against additional sewage backups — costing the library $400 each time.

“We were really, truly thinking that we would have to close, at least until we could get the system done,” Thomas said.

The next chapter

For two households, the library is more than a third place; it’s home. Anchor Point Library rents two apartments attached to the building as an additional source of revenue. Each time the library’s septic system failed, Thomas had to inform the residents.

“We’d have to text them ‘Okay, the [pump] guy’s not going to be able to come until noon tomorrow. Please don’t go to the bathroom or flush,’” she said.

With a new septic system, Thomas no longer has to send those texts. In 2025, the library upgraded its leach field and replaced its septic tank, adding concrete barriers to protect the tank’s access pipe. The new tank should last the library another 40-plus years.

In 2025, Anchor Point Public Library replaced its more than 40-year-old septic system, failure of which had resulted in multiple backups and floodings. Prior to installing the new system, the library closed multiple time due to the unavailability of its restroom. Photo courtesy of Anchor Point Public Library.

With the help of the Homer Foundation, the library will replace the bathroom linoleum and add safety railing.

An out-of-service bathroom sounds like a small thing, but the repair means the library can keep its doors open to community members for activities like its summer reading program, book sales, and weekly story time.

Thomas no longer has to turn people away because of a bathroom backup, but she knows the library has the potential to do more, and be more, for Anchor Point. One potential beautification project she has in mind is painting the library’s exterior — the vertical siding would be perfect, she said, for an artist’s mural of book spines lined up on a shelf.

“I want to see this library succeed, and I want to see people come and take advantage of it,” she said. “People just love it. And we want them to feel like they can come and chill for a bit. It’s just a really nice community place.”

The Anchor Point Library received a $35,000 Tier 1 grant in 2025 to support the purchase of the septic tank.