By Robert Stephens

It sits there waiting, patiently, quietly on a dusty country road. It might just be the loneliest library in the world - and it's the only one in Bennett Valley, on the official free library register #189679. Perched at the crossroads of Sonoma Mountain Road and Pressley Road, it is an old barn rusty red color with corrugated tin roof - eerily similar to the real red barn that sits next door. That barn is where Mark and Caryn used to keep their horses as kids. They'd ride along Petaluma Hill Road into Penngrove to get a couple icy cold bottles of Coca Cola. You remember those. It's rumored that the tin roof on that little free library is from an old barn that used to sit on the field across the road. 

It's been there a while and has had a good run so far with a good mix of fiction and non-fiction - but it's running a little thin and could use some more books, and more regular visits from you. There's a convenient space to pull over right next to it - safely along a guard rail.

Here's the entry on the official Free Library Register:

This library was built in honor of our friend and neighbor Matt Richardson, who passed away in 2023 at the ripe old age of 95. A jolly Irishman, Matt lived on this corner since 1957 - where all the local kids often waited for the school bus. You'd see him walking on this very stretch of road. So now he's here sharing his love of books with you all.