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January 2026

The purchase of the Property was put off until February 2026 due to slight legal issues that simply needed more time for the back and forth of paperwork.

The Friends of the Argyle Public Library, The Village Board of Argyle, and The Argyle Public Library Director’s Board discussed memorandum’s of understanding between each entity to ensure a harmonious transition to a new space.

January 2026

The 2nd Annual Mystery Dinner Theatre was hosted by the Friends of the Argyle Public Library in conjunction with Argyle Community Park Foundation. With The Legacy opening up we were able to more than double attendance! The Corner Pub and Deli again provided a delicious meal. Community support surrounding this event was high, with many local business’ chipping in for the bucket raffle. The cast and crew did a fantastic job to the appreciation (and much laughter) of the audience! We’ve received some great feedback and are looking forward to next year. 

February 2026

The Building officially belongs to Argyle! Open houses will be coming soon so that the community can join in the excitement and see the vision of the the NEW Argyle Community Center and Argyle Public Library!

January 2025

We held our first Mystery Dinner Theatre in conjunction with The Friends of McKellar Pool Park foundation. It was a rousing success! We filled The Corner Pub and Deli to the brim, ate a delicious meal, and had a blast solving a Who Dunnit murder mystery together.  

October 2025

The Friends of the Argyle Public Library received a grant from the Community Foundation of Southwest Wisconsin towards refreshing the staff desk area in the Argyle Public Library.

Fall 2025

A new building?! 

When we first received word that the First National Bank and Trust Company was selling out to a national corporation and closing the Argyle Branch, it seemed a blow to the community. Then bright minds started brainstorming: what could the empty building be used for? A new community space including a library, naturally! Joe Schutte, Argyle’s Economic Development Director, approached the bank to see if they would be willing to sell and cut Argyle a deal.

Late November 2025

The Village Board approved pursuing purchase of the building.

The Friends of the Argyle Public Library pledged to head up fundraising so that the village locals wouldn’t be burdened by extra taxes. The community was informed, engaged, and overall feedback was very positive.

December 2025

The Village Board approved the purchase price and terms, 3 years of interest-only payments to allow us to get funding.

 The Friends of the Argyle Public Library contracted The Community Foundation of Southwest Wisconsin to help run a Capital Campaign. 

June 2024

The Community Foundation of Southwest Wisconsin in conjunction with The Schlecht Family Foundation set up a endowment fund for the Argyle Public Library with a DOUBLE monetary match up to $3,750. We had 1 year to help spread the word to our members and the community. In June of 2025 we had met and exceeded our goal just through community support! The Friends of the Argyle Public Library had been hoping that the community would be able and willing to, but we held off making our own donation so that we could ensure that the matching funds were met. With that being done, we went ahead and made a generous donation to top things off. Donations are still being accepted for the endowment fund, if you have questions about how it works The Community Foundation of Southwest Wisconsin or Argyle’s Director would be happy to answer questions!

October 2024

The Friends of the Argyle Public Library received a grant from the Community Foundation of Southwest Wisconsin, to provide the Argyle Public Library with a laptop and new electronic equipment. This allows the Library to have computer access at various events, to run dvd’s in the community room, and to help patrons, who may be in need of assistance, more privacy.

In 2023

Exciting news was released to Wisconsin’s Library Community. 4.25 million dollar grants were going to be given from excess Covid money to a few libraries around the state that were in need of new libraries. We spent hours as a board fine tuning our grant to give Argyle the best chance we could at receiving this grant. 

Unfortunately, when it came down to the wire, we didn’t quite make the cut. We’re very happy for our local neighbors who did, New Glarus and Dodgeville. This was a huge blow, but we tried to keep the momentum going.

 October 2023

The Friends of the Argyle Public Library received a grant that replaced the folding chairs in the community center with more comfortable padded chairs, as well as some fun floor kids chairs. It also allowed for blackout curtains on the West side of the windows so that programs that used a projector were visible to patrons. No more squinting to see!

Summer 2021

The Friends of the Argyle Public Library began their journey in 2021 with a dream before a name. In the summer of 2021, the Library Board formed a Building Committee with the mission to move the library into a fully accessible space to better serve the needs of all patrons. Many of the 15 committee members toured other southwestern Wisconsin libraries that recently built or remodeled their facilities to learn from their experience and see what was working well. From this group the idea for The Friends of the Argyle Public Library was born.

April 2022

That dream became a reality. The non-profit Friends of the Argyle Public Library was ready to begin. Our goals were first and foremost to seriously work towards and raise funds for a new library. While we all love our little 900 square foot library within the Waddington Memorial Building, the size constraints seriously hamper the number of people the library can host comfortably as well as the number of books we can have in circulation. 

Our second aim was to promote the Argyle Public Library, to encourage use, support programming, and help by applying for grants and random needs monetarily. 

June 2022

We started with a bang! We had FEH designs and community polls to see what people were looking for in a new library space. Hours spent pouring over maps and talking to locals about purchasing land or buildings that might house the library. Moral was high, excitement palpable.

We also took over the Book Sale Fundraiser that was run by the Argyle Public Library: we have continued to run this every June during Garage Sale Days in Argyle!

October 2022

The Friends received a grant from the Community Foundation of Southwest Wisconsin towards a canopy, chairs, tables, etc…so that the Friends could join in at the Argyle Farmer’s Markets and other events around the town.