Will's World: Will's World 02 18 2010

The Boston Public Library's McKim Building.

Today’s blog comes live from the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. This library was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States and the first public library to allow people to borrow books. It contains 6.1 million books.

The library was officially established by a Boston ordinance in 1852. Then in 1887, the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White was chosen to design a new library building. In 1888, Charles McKim proposed a design based on Renaissance style and construction began, with the opening coming in 1895.

Bates Hall, named for one of the library’s first benefactors, is the main reading room. Boston Globe reporter Sam Allis wrote: “Bates Hall, the great reading room of the BPL, vast and hushed and illuminated with a profusion of green lampshades like fireflies … [is one of Boston’s] secular spots that are sacred.”

Today, the McKim building occupies only half the area of the BPL. In 1972 a late modernist addition, designed by Philip Johnson, was built using similar proportions and the same pink granite as used for the McKim building. The McKim and Johnson buildings are both in use and are linked by hallways, thus doubling the size of what was the BPL prior to 1972.

Built into the façade of the McKim building is a granite bench. My blind grandfather used to sit on this bench often, especially when my grandmother planted him there as she went shopping. When she returned, often hours later, he usually would have a story to tell her about someone who had stopped by to chat with him as he enjoyed the sun.

As a teenager in need of a sanctuary from the home battles with my father, I sometimes would flee to the BPL to do some reading and then borrow some books to take across the street to Waldorf’s Cafeteria. Over several cups of coffee, and a piece of apple pie if I had the funds, I would continue to be transported far away by the printed words.