[LIB2658]Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Public Library, Copley Square, Boston MA
Founded in 1848, by an act of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts, the Boston Public Library (BPL) was the first large free municipal library in the United States. The Boston Public Library's first building of its own was a former schoolhouse located on Mason Street that was opened to the public on March 20, 1854. The Library's collections approximated 16,000 volumes, and it was obvious from the day the doors were first opened that the quarters were inadequate. In December of that same year the Library's Commissioners were authorized to locate a new building upon a lot on Boylston Street. The present Copley Square location has been home to the Library since 1895, when architect Charles Follen McKim completed his "palace for the people." [LIB2656]
1908 Pruyn Library, Albany, New York
[LIB2655]On Monday the new Pruyn library, an auxiliary of the Young Men's Association Library, will be formally opened to the public. The building occupies the site on the corner of North Pearl Street and Clinton Avenue of the house in which the late John V.L. Pruyn, Chancellor of the university, was born in 1811. [NY Times, April, 1901]
Library, Rutland, Vermont
The Rutland Free Library was started in 1886. Originally housed in various storefronts and at the old Memorial Hall on West Street, the library has been located in the old courthouse and jail on Center Street since the 1930s. In 1965 an addition was built to expand the capacity. In 1990 a second addition was completed, making a total of 24,167 square feet available including meeting rooms, book stacks, reading rooms, administrative offices, and storage. [SOURCE] [LIB2653]
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