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Tour of Newly Renovated St. Louis Public Library is a Treat

The renovation of the hundred-year-old St. Louis Public Library is complete, and free tours of this beautiful and up-to-date library are a great way to spend part of a day in the city!

St. Louis, Missouri, is a nice place for a day trip from Carbondale, Illinois. It's two hours away by car, and, until you get close to the city, the ride is scenic and restful.

The Historic St. Louis Central Library
Among the many places to visit in St. Louis is the newly restored Central Library. My sister is a docent (tour guide) at the library, so she took us around and made things more interesting. This massive and beautiful building dates from the early twentieth century.

Central is the cornerstone of the St. Louis Public Library's 17 branch libraries. The St. Louis library system traces its history to 1865, when the Public School Library and Lyceum was established by Ira Divoli, then-Superintendent of St Louis Public Schools, in the Darby Building at 5th and Olive. In 1908, the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall was demolished to make room for the beautiful library at 14th and Olive Streets, designed by the architect Cass Gilbert, who is well known for the St. Louis Art Museum building, the 1904 World's Fair Festival Hall, and the United States Supreme Court Building.

Beauty and History in the Building
We loved the beautiful old carved woodwork and the high ornate ceilings of the Great Hall, with pictures of Louis IX of France (aka St. Louis) and Hernando De Soto (the first European to cross the Mississippi). High and glorious ceilings were the "highlights" of several rooms that reflect ancient Greek architecture, the Renaissance, and the Beaux Arts style.

The St. Louis Central Library Made New
The restoration of the Central Library, taking almost three years and 70 million dollars, has accomplished a skillful blending of old grandeur and new design. Chief architect George Nikolajevich of Cannon Design approached his "collaboration" with Cass Gilbert with respect and awe: "I hope Cass Gilbert will say to me [if I see him in Heaven], 'You didn't do too bad.' "

In contrast to the dark wood were the lightened-up rooms-the north entrance with its wide atrium and modern white staircase, which have replaced the old stacks, innovative in their time, but more recently a fire hazard. The glass floors from those stacks have been recycled into a wall behind the desk in this area. The downstairs reading room, the first you enter from that area, has white ceilings embossed with quotes from famous authors-Kurt Vonnegut, Graham Greene, Thomas Carlyle. The clean white walls and the comfortable, coolly modern seating makes the room an inviting place. Best of all, books are displayed on shelf after shelf cover sides out, so you can easily see what books are available--and judge them by their covers!

Appealing Rooms for Science, Music and Media
The science room is bright too, with posters illustrating natural and applied science and technology, and shelving which is lit from the inside, so the books are easy to see and look very pretty.

There's an extensive music collection, a media room where groups can meet and collaborate on projects such as photo sharing, video creation, and other flights of the imagination.

Comfortable Spaces for Middle- and High-School-Aged Patrons
There are special rooms for middle-school and high-school students, with zany, colorful, comfortable chairs, and bold encouragement to BE! and to DREAM.

Creative New Ceiling Decorations
Up high in the hallways, flying book-jacket sculptures create ceiling interest, complementing the photographs of the original library and its patrons, competing just a bit with the fabulous Renaissance-inspired ceilings in the larger rooms.

The Children's Room Is Fun!
My favorite room by far, though, is the children's room. On entering, you see huge colorful posters bearing likenesses of beloved characters from children's books, with quotes-Madeline ("in two straight lines") in pink, "mashed potatoes are to give everybody enough," from A Hole Is to Dig, and one I was not (yet) familiar with, in purple, Kitten's First Full Moon: "It was Kitten's first full moon. When she saw it, she thought, There's a little bowl of milk in the sky. And she wanted it." Precious!

There's a sculpted piece of what looks like indoor playground equipment in the children's room for climbing on and curling up in. The pint-sized tables are shaped and colored like leaves and have colored animals on the chair backs-a green frog, an orange owl.

Books are arranged on easy-to-reach low shelves, and of course there are computers, arranged around a circular table made to look like a boat, with a flag flying on top.

Come for a Tour
If you'd like to take advantage of one of the library tours led by a trained docent, they are also free, and available on Mondays and Saturdays at 10:00, 11:00, 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm-except on Saturday June 15. No reservations are necessary. Just come to the desk in Great Hall, 2nd floor, prior to the start time.

If you have a group of eight or more, you can schedule your own tour from Monday to Saturday by calling or emailing in advance: 314-539-0345; or [email protected].

Come to the St. Louis Central Library and visit these beautiful and inviting spaces for yourself. It's free, of course!

Read More!
Read more about the architectural masterpiece that is the St. Louis Central Library at:

Ron Charles, "Remodeled St. Louis Central Library Is a Marvel," The Washington Post, March 29, 2020 ;
and

Robert W. Duffy, "An Architectural Reflection: Renovations Serve the Central Library Well," The St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 3, 2020.