Exploring Grove City: Library, Lollipop Stop and Welcome Center and Museum

{Updates: The Lollipop Stop unfortunately closed during the summer of 2016. The new Grove City Library was completed in October, 2016 and is now at 3959 Broadway, Grove City, OH 43123}

After a lot of sick days at home, I forced the three of us out of the house, into the snow and wind, for an outing to Grove City. I’m in a weird place here. You see, the two libraries closest to me are now closed for renovations. There is going to be a good 4 month overlap where I have no home library. I like exploring new libraries, to be sure, but I need a home base where I can reserve and return all these Lego books my son likes to check out and read 35,000 times!

Well, a few of the books had come due and it was time to venture out and return them somewhere. I chose the Grove City Library. Turns out Grove City is building a new library too! But luckily for us, in this case, the old one is still open! It looks like the new one will be awesome – so we’ll definitely revisit come summer!

The kids area is pretty low key here. There was no story time when we went, but they do offer several times during the week for different age groups. My goal here was to return books and spend a little time playing.

My boys did some puzzles and took turns picking out books and reading them in the large open area on these comfy seats.

One plus about this location is that the Police Department is across the street and you can look out the tall windows and see police vehicles, which is always a plus for my boys!

I told the boys if they listened to me at the library, we would go to the candy store around the corner. So, of course when it was time to leave, my oldest yelled through the library to my youngest, “Come on, Mayson, Mommy said we could go to the candy store!” Now I am loudly pronounced that mom who might be bribing her kids AND lets them eat CANDY! “Shh!” I said, “that sign right there says to use your library voice!” (Luckily for me, that was true!) haha. Oh, well.

As planned, we walked through the wind and snow to the Lollipop Stop. Honestly it’s just 1 tenth of a mile from the library and totally doable, even in the snow! On the way we passed these cute puppies which were fun to “pet”.

The Lollipop Stop is a cute little store (so little, I left my umbrella stroller outside).

So much to see and lots of fun for kids to pick out a few pieces of candy! There are chocolates, bulk candy, cupcakes and fun trinkets and toys. In warmer weather, they also sell ice cream.

Admittedly, this was a little tough for my toddler who doesn’t exactly understand that you can’t just reach in and eat whatever candy you want. He spent a few minutes flat out on the floor in his typical tantrum pose. But can you blame him? He’s a kid in a candy shop! (A kid with very little control over his emotions and impulses, to boot!)  I let the kids pick out just a few pieces of candy. There is a $2.50 minimum purchase on the bulk candy so we also picked out two rubber balls. It was a bright, fun respite from the winter weather.

On the walk back, I took an unplanned detour into the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum. I’m glad we did! I would recommend this stop as part of your day in downtown Grove City! There is a lot more to see here than I expected! An old-fashioned car, early firefighter uniforms, old tools, cameras and record players, to name a few! A very friendly employee gave us a short tour and let us hear music played on the record player and gramophone. The building is an old bank and the vault is full of local artifacts including a large cash register from the 1920’s (that also still works!). The Welcome Center also offers flyers and pamphlets about things to do in Grove City and the surrounding area.

After 8 years of living here, though I had driven through, this was the first time I had set foot in downtown Grove City! I’m looking forward to coming back to the new library and adding the Lollipop Stop to my ice cream exploits! You could easily pass a morning here, and I’m sure there’s even more to do! What else should I check out in Grove City? Feel free to comment with ideas!

Know Before You Go:

Grove City Library
3359 Park St, Grove City, OH 43123
Hours:
Monday – Thursday – 9:30 AM – 9:00 PM
Friday and Saturday – 9:30 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday – 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Phone: 614-875-6716

Lollipop Stop
4002 Broadway Grove City, OH 43123
614-991-5192

Grove City Welcome Center and Museum
3378 Park Street, Grove City, OH, 43123
Hours:
Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Tuesdays 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Phone: 614-277-3061

Also:  The library has its own parking lot.  I used free, 2 hour street parking in front of the library and walked to the other places, which are all within 1-2 blocks.