March 9, 2009
The West Philadelphia Tool Library
Photo: The original Tool Library steering committee (from left to right): Ben White, Michael Froehlich, Stacey Hendricks, and Morgan Riffer
You know how you sometimes think, ‘I don’t have a compound mitre saw to navigate intriciate cross cuts in this piece of clear pine?’
Well, silly bear, that’s when you should go to the West Philly Tool Library!
Located at 4620 Woodland Ave. below Clark Park, the WPTL has a few hundred tools – and accepting more donations – from complex power tools to hammers, handheld tools and gardening supplies. For a $20 annual membership fee, or $200 for a lifetime membership, you can use their entire collection to build that birdhouse you’ve been dreaming about.
You don’t have to live in West Philly, but you do need to be 18 or older, have two forms of ID and be into joining a community group. It also may or may not also help to have a beard.
The WPTL had its soft launch in September 2007 and on March 15th celebrated its one year anniversary of open expansion. Membership fees account for about half of the operating costs. The rest come from donations, corporate and otherwise.
Those donations are welcome – money, tools, and other acts of good will. WPTL is a project of the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, so your donations are tax-deductible. See more at www.westphillytools.org.
The first tool library started in Berkeley in 1979, according to the West Philly group, and there are more than 20 other tool libraries in the country, but, you’ll be happy to know, Philadelphia is the largest city with its very own official tool-lenders. Go build something.
West Philly Tool Library
4620 Woodland Ave, Philadelphia, PA
$20 annual membership fee
215-833-3190 | info@westphillytools.org
www.westphillytools.org
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March 9, 2009, 9:12 am
Click Here says:
This sounds cool. I’ll have to check it out.
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