SLIDESHOW: Trustees, Framingham Unveil Christa McAuliffe Branch Library Sign

It's been a long and winding road, but on a cold, sunny Thursday morning, Library Trustees and other community leaders celebrated another step closer to the goal of opening a new Christa McAuliffe branch library, in the Nobscot neighborhood of Framingham.

A sign announcing the "Future Home of Christa McAuliffe Library Branch" was unveiled at 746 Water St.

Groundbreaking could happen as early as summer 2014, said Library Building Committee Chair Sam Klaidman.

In October 2012, the Framingham Library Foundation and the Framingham Library Trustees were awarded a $4.186 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners towards the estimated total construction cost is $8.6 million.

In May 2013, a Special Town Meeting voted 149-1 to build the new Christa McAuliffe branch library. Taxpayers share of the project is about $3.8 million, which will be funded over a 20-year capital bond.

The proposed one-story, L-shaped library will be about triple the size of the current library branch in Saxonville. 

The new Nobscot library branch will be about 17,000 square feet and have parking for 55 vehicles. Additional news designs, including the look and feel of the new youth library area were unveiled yesterday.

As part of the project the Framingham Library Foundation has pledged $600,000 to the new McAuliffe branch library project.The foundation has already raised about $400,000

The library construction project will still need to go before town boards, including planning and zoning board of appeals, but if the project stay on track it could open by Christmas of 2015.

The branch library has a futuristic design, to reflect whom the library will be named after, the late first teacher in space and Framingham native Christa Corrigan McAuliffe.

What is now known as the McAuliffe Library branch opened in Saxonville in opened in 1963, and was later renamed in honor of the astronaut after she died in the 1986 Challenger disaster.