More St. Louis Library Photos

I should have mentioned in my previous post a couple of fun facts I learned about our old library. Including:

- One million dollars was donated for the 1912 construction by steel baron Andrew Carnegie. The only stipulation? The steel must be purchased from steel baron Andrew Carnegie.

- The beautiful bronze bust of Mark Twain featured in the central library was funded by a donation from Benito Mussolini. Yes, that Benito Mussolini.

- The grand hall showcases a 4500-year-old Mesopotamian clay tablet covered with cuneiform writing.

What a beautiful place.

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The St. Louis Public Library

Today I was fortunate to spend a few hours exploring and photographing the stacks of the grand old St. Louis Public Library building at 14th and Olive in downtown St. Louis. Particularly fortunate that I was able to do so today because, tomorrow, the stacks are going away. As part of a two-year rehab and reconstruction operation, five stories of stacks and the weirdly wonderful glass floors that accompany them will fall to the wrecking ball. Much of the property will be reused (including some of the glass flooring as well as the subway tile walls) in the new, ultramodern addition. These architectural quirks will be missed.

They don’t make them like they used to.

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