The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—Steve’s Grocery on Fourth Street in Dayton has always been a unique gathering place, a neighborhood market where you can grab a gallon of milk, a Hermiston watermelon, a Christmas tree, or an ice-cold beer straight from the cooler. It even housed a little free library back in the ‘70s. The store’s original owner, Gail Bennett, had a shelf in the back of the store right by that beer cooler with the watermelons where customers could exchange books. “That shelf turned into a room of books, so we had to stop doing it,” said his daughter and the store’s current owner TJ (Tammy) Hersey.

Now the landmark grocery store is the newest location in Columbia County for the latest installment of a Little Free Library right outside, near the Christmas trees. This Little Free Library was donated and will be maintained by the Friends of the Dayton Memorial Library.

“It is a great way for the community to have a way to share books,” said Lorna Barth of the Friends of the Library. “This is an easy and safe place to leave a book for someone else and take a new one home for a good read, and no mask is required.”