Seattle’s Little Free Libraries Offer a Catalog of Collections and Connections
January 14, 2025 at 12:26AMBack in 2009, Todd Bol built a Little Free Library in his Wisconsin front yard, where locals could swap books for free. In this story originally published at Pacific NW Magazine and reprinted by Civil Eats, Rebekah Denn reports on how item swapping and sharing has blossomed in the 16 years since, to include Little Free Bakeries that offer homemade cupcakes, Little Free Seed Libraries where locals can trade surplus seeds, and even a “Little Free Failure of Capitalism” depot stocked with feminine products, soap, chargers, and Narcan—all gratis.
Spooning buttercream into a pastry bag, Kim Holloway is close to opening time. She pipes rosettes of frosting on trays of vanilla cupcakes—some plain vanilla frosting, some cookies and cream.
With the aid of Holloway’s “partner in crime,” Kathleen Dickenson, they prop the lid of an old-fashioned school desk in Holloway’s front yard and fill it with cupcakes. Holloway adds edible pearls and glitter. Shortly after 3 p.m., the Little Free Bakery Phinneywood is open for business—the business of sharing.
“I love to bake, and many people have told me, ‘Oh, you should open a bakery.’ And I just think, ‘No, no, no, no. It would take the joy out of it for me,” Holloway says.
Like hundreds of other Little Free hosts in the region, she’s found joy instead in giving.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/01/13/seattles-little-free-libraries-offer-a-catalog-of-collections-and-connections/
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