I just found a gorgeous picture of the Carnegie West library back home. Not only does Cleveland have the deepest stacks per capita of any city in the U.S., it turns out that my neighborhood library was/is the largest branch in the entire system!!!! when i found the picture below, and blew it up, i couldn't help myself. not at all. I feel like a snot machine right now. This building that I found by accident was up to that point the holiest place on earth upon which I had ever set foot. It may yet be the holiest of holy places that I have ever been. Not knowing how special this building was in the community of U.S. libraries, I made the erroneous assumption that I lived in a society that had such deep reverence for knowledge and the printed word that it would devote lavish resources to inspiring our awe in it, so that we would love knowledge and want to become better people. I wanted to be a better person because I saw and was touched by and understood God in this building, without ever having a religious or spiritual thought. Nothing more than the rapture of being seized by the beauty both within the walls of this building and surrounding it. This place must be an example of sacred architecture, if there is any such thing. It has to be.
From the Cleveland Public Library Web Site:
Carnegie West Branch History
At 25,000 square feet, the Carnegie West branch in Ohio City is the largest branch of our library system.Carnegie West opened in 1910 and its architecture can be described as modified Renaissance with elements of classical style.
The library is located in triangular site surrounded by a park. The
building’s materials of brick, limestone and terra cotta provide a
contrast of texture and color. The interior is decorated with plaster
bas reliefs of Thorwaldsen’s Triumphal Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon
and parts of the Parthenon frieze. The original auditorium in the
basement could seat 650 people. Carnegie West was completely remodeled
in 1979, and was originally designed by Edward Tilton.
