DTL 10th Anniversary Reminiscing Project
Gather ‘round now while we tell some tales of times past. April 4th, 2025 was our 10th Bday, so we released a chronology of grainy photos and stories that are at least 90% true. 🎉
Tale #1: Did you know that the Denver Tool Library started because the founder, Sarah, found some bolt cutters laying in the road?
After doing all the research and surveys and brainstorming with friends and making a pretty nifty binder with lots of tabs and sticky notes, she asked the universe for a sign if she should really pull the trigger on the DTL plan. Less than 30 minutes later, the universe bopped some bright yellow bolt cutters directly in her path. So really you can thank whoever’s truck the universe bumped those beautiful bolt cutters out of. They sacrificed a tool so that Denverites could share thousands of them 🫶
Tale #2: Did you know that the DTL started entirely with $20,000 raised during a fundraiser?
After Sarah was inspired by some old bolt cutters she found on the road, she started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise seed money for the DTL. Slinging the “cool concept” of tool sharing, she managed to get people to buy their DTL memberships in advance of being open - raising $20,000! She threw a party for all of our Founding Members, whose names now hang on the wall in celebration of their pioneering spirits. That party is also where she met Garrett, who just showed up and stuck around so long that now he’s the assistant director.
Tale #3: Did you know that the whole Denver Tool Library used to be in the back half of the shop only (where the Workshop is now)?
Even though the $20,000 raised from membership pre-sales was more cash money than any of us had ever seen, we still had to be pretty scrappy. We could only afford to rent the back half of the shop (where the workshop is now) and still had to sublet a corner of it to screenprinter extraordinaire Arna Miller. Google maps would lead you to our secret back alley entrance. Our original sign was a cut up billboard found in the dumpster, and nobody got paid for years. BOY WE HAD FUN THOUGH!!! Our volunteers were truly truly amazing, so many generous people started donating tools to help us build our inventory, and members regularly brought us food and beer to help us survive.
Tale #4: Did you know we used to have bands play on the roof during our First Friday parties?
Since everyone was a volunteer the first few years, we had to throw good parties. We got bands to play in our backlot, sometimes on the roof, and we’d serve drinks out of a poorly built particleboard structure that we called the “Clamp Shack.” For our first birthday party INCITE made us the big creepy baby that’s still hanging in the workshop. DTL First Friday morphed from live bands and vendors, to dj sets and stump, to mostly karaoke over the years. This year we’re doing First Friday Member Socials so everyone can get chatty about whatever they’re workin’ on. Everyone is welcome and members get a free drink 🍻and there will still be threes i bet, iykyk 🎲
Tale #5: Did you know the Community Workshop opened in 2018, almost five years after the Tool Library?
Almost five years after the Tool Library opened, it was time to take the leap and get ourselves a front door. We expanded and took over the gallery space up front. We shuffled some things around, bought a bunch of very heavy workshop tools from a weird guy on Craigslist, and started to let people use them for whatever they wanted. It was the beginning of Open Shop, and it was weird lol. Things were much improved once we got our super handy and super helpful Shop Monitors. We also started trying out some of our first classes, like Cutting Boards and Hexagon Shelves w/ Sineah.
Tale #6: Did you know we opened a drive-thru so people could still borrow tools during the pandemic?
Well, not quite a drive-thru. It was more like some plastic folding tables in front of the door that we called a drive-thru. We’d stack tools on it for people to pick up, and when they dropped them off, we’d spray them down with a lawn pump sprayer full of sanitizer from the city. In the winter the tools would freeze to the tables. In hindsight, we may have over-indulged in sign-making as a coping mechanism, giving the DTL drive-thru its distinct “the end is near” appearance.
Tale #7: Did you know that classes at the tool library weren’t really much of a thing until after the pandemic?
After the pandemic let up y’all REALLY wanted to get out of your homes. Thanks to you and our fantastic teachers, we went from 0 classes to running a woodworking, metalworking, home renovation, or art class just about every day over the course of a year. We’ve tried all sorts of classes in our little space since then from knitting to blacksmithing with varying degrees of success, and we’re still trying out new ones all the time. BTW - You should totally take a class!
Tale #8: Did you know that today people check out 12,000+ tools per year, offer 500+ classes per year, and have 1000+ hours of people building their own projects in our community workshop per year?
We’ve come a long way since we were just a couple hundred tools in the back of the shop, and these stats keep growing! We’ve been able to actually HIRE an amazing team of staff, and rumor has it we’re even looking for a bigger space. Pick up a DTL 10 Year Anniversary “Against All Odds” shirt next time you’re at the shop, and big thanks to folks like you for making the “cool concept” of the Denver Tool Library a rad reality!
