June 19, 2008

The public library.

This is the public library in Columbus, Wisconsin.

The Public Library in Columbus, Wisconsin

It was designed in the Prairie Style by Louis W. Claude and Edwin F. Starck and dedicated in 1912.

If you've got a picture of an equally charming public library, please point it out.

37 comments:

Bissage said...

I guess there's a wheelchair ramp in the back?

Ann Althouse said...

Actually, the plaque in front says it was made handicap accessible in 1990.

Stephanie Carnes said...

I've always liked the stone library in Ogunquit, Maine. Sorry about the very long link!

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ogunquitnow.com/images/200605231945170.library01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gayogunquit.com/seeanddo1.php%3Fsdid%3D385&h=338&w=450&sz=54&tbnid=K6sk9n5yPJEJ::&tbnh=95&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpicture%2Bof%2BOgunquit%2BMaine%2Blibrary&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1

Hoosier Daddy said...

BTW, great picture Professor. You look like you're about 24 years old.

Palladian said...

Try this, Stefanie.

MadisonMan said...

I can't find a picture of my parent's library -- it was just put into a new building a year or two ago -- but one of my first memories is the three steps you had to climb up to get to the kid's section -- back when Schlow Library was in the old Wolf's Furniture Store on College Ave.

Matt Brown said...

How many books does it hold? I mean, unless there's more of the building round the back, it doesn't look like it holds all that much.

Bob said...

It's lovely. I hope that there's room inside to relax, and that the place isn't crammed floor-to-ceiling with books.

MadisonMan said...

I hope the Columbus library is not very close to the Catfish River, given all the recent rains.

Rockport Conservative said...

My favorite library is in Fort Davis, Texas. I wish I had a photo of it. It was not a library it is a very old wooden structure that is used as a library. Many big old rooms, the original wood floors and a great place for visitors and winter Texans to get used books, mostly paperback but many hardback. It is apparently a place where they turn in their used books, as I do. I love to visit and spend time there, old chairs and couches to sit in and read, a very friendly and lonely library staff, just a great place to spend some time.
Ruth H

sixty-five said...

The library in Lenox, Mass is a delight.

Ruth Anne Adams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KCFleming said...

Well, I suppose this doesn't count any more.

This used to be the town library, now it houses a medical school library.

The town built this monstrosity instead, in the "Corroded Tin Can By a Brick" architectural style.

Ugh.
My town embraces not 'creative destruction' but 'bland and cheap replacement' as its credo.

This fine old Carnegie library in Zumbrota MN is now an artsy-crafty specialty shop. It was also replaced, here in the style known as "Hideouse Warehouse Designed by Committee and Made of Cheap Materials, Soon Needing to be Razed."

Salamandyr said...

The town library in my old town, Sikeston Missouri used to be this very pleasant shaded old red brick house. Unfortunately, a few years ago, they expanded it, tore out all the trees for parking, extended the rear (so that one side became the new front), and then redid the old front to "look" like it used to. It didn't work. Now it looks like a modern building designed to look antique, rather than an old building that has withstood the years.

And the worst part is, they didn't seem to expand the number of books they had at all.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Lewes, Delware is not bad for a small town. Has pc's too if you want to use the internets.

http://sussex.lib.de.us/WebsiteImages/Lewes.JPG

KCFleming said...

AJ,

Is that a Lutheran library, perhaps ELCA?

I keed, I keed. It looks just like three churches in this town.

xiitone said...

I've always been a fan of the Latter Library on St Charles Ave. in New Orleans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:LatterLibraryStoneSignHouse.jpg

rhhardin said...

There's the Keene Valley library, from which I have read every single airplane story book.

Unfortunately the photo isn't artfully chosen.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if it's "charming" in quite the same sense, but the Bartholomew County Public Library in Columbus, IN was my second home as a child.

Of course, it's no surprise that it is amazing. I did, after all, say Columbus, Indiana.

Michael McNeil said...

Felton Library, a branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Here is another oldie but goodie. Conshohocken's - means Pleasant Valley in some Indian dialect.

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~rls54/page4.html

howzerdo said...

Here is a link to some photos of the library in Stone Ridge, New York:

http://www.stoneridgelibrary.org/LibraryRestoration.html

MadisonMan said...

Ruth Anne, yes, Crawfish. I conflated the name with the antiques place in Stoughton.

former law student said...

Though its design and use of stucco makes that library look like it escaped from California, sadly all its California library contemporaries have long since been torn down.

MadisonMan said...

Though its design and use of stucco makes that library look like it escaped from California

Yes, California is well known for its prairies.

former law student said...

Image search google for "california bungalow"

See, e.g. this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclotourist/436836933/

Unknown said...

I'm not sure if you count authentic Federalist as charming, but here is the public library in Bellefonte, PA:

http://flickr.com/photos/r1ghtw1ngpr0f/2446202152/

chuck b. said...

All seven of San Francisco's Carnegie branch libraries still serve as such (the main library was converted into the Asian Art Museum). The buildings are not charming tho'. Austere is more like it. The interiors are nice in the ones that I've seen.

This website indicates that many California Carnegie libraries, in a variety of styles still stand and function as libraries.
http://www.carnegie-libraries.org/

And while much has been lost to development, California still has beautiful prairie.

American Liberal Elite said...

The old library on Music Street in West Tisbury on Martha"s Vineyard.

ricpic said...

The public library, what a refuge, from this cold calculating world;
It's where a boy, or even man, can ease and wings unfurl.

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Ms. Brooke Babbling said...
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Ms. Brooke Babbling said...

Private libraries are better !

Meade said...

Hard to beat the Columbus library for charm. Makes perfect sense that it's Ruth Anne's hometown library.

I like the Redbud tree (natch) but why it is people think they have to take perfectly fine architecture and ornament it with inappropriate potted plants and shrub up the foundations is beyond me. Let the lines of the building rise unobstructed from the site and plant trees and shrubs, etc. out where one can see them when looking out of the windows. Cripes! It's as if people are embarrassed to have built a building.

Beth said...

Mr.!

I picked up a book on reserve from the Latter library this afternoon and snapped a picture with my phone, to post here. Imagine my delight when I saw your post.

This has been my library for 33 years. It's where friends and I would go study after class as high school students. For years now, I've fantasized about having an office in the little carriage house outside (in the far right of the wikipedia photo).

Blenheim said...

I'm a confirmed lurker here, Professor, but your post made me think of (and hunt down a picture of) my most beloved childhood library in St. Helena, California.

http://www.carnegie-libraries.org/california/regions/northcoast/sthelena.html

Thanks for the memories!