The Temperature Of The Air On The Bow Of The Kaleetan

I have led downtown St. Louis architecture walking tours for many years now.  A favorite stopping point is the corner of 12^th and Olive.  Across the street is the Central Library, built with funds gifted to St. Louis by  Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie announced his gift of half a million dollars in a letter.  This letter had a typo --- however, the wealthy steel magnate was unwilling to spend money to have a secretary re-type the letter, so the typo was fixed by hand.

Carnegie’s gift to St. Louis was appropriate.  Twelve blocks east of the Central Library is the Eads Bridge, the first steel alloy bridge in the world.  That bridge was Carnegie’s first major steel contract.

St. Louis knew that great cultural institutions require great architecture.  It added one million dollars to Carnegie’s gift, hired Cass Gilbert, and proceeded to build a library taking up an entire city block.  Finished in 1912, the Central Library was so lavish that Andrew Carnegie got upset.  The man who would not pay to re-type a letter continued to donate money for libraries, but he put restrictions on his gifts so that no other city could go hog wild like St. Louis.

When my tour groups stand on the corner of 12^th and Olive, I point out that the Central Library looks like it is in the shape of a square.  However, it is actually an oval with a square frame around it.  The oval is connected to the frame by four bridges.

I then take the tour group up the steps of the Library, through the bronze gates by Gorham and Sons, and into the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.  We then cross a bridge into the Great Hall, where the marbled floor is patterned after the floor of the Pantheon.  Every room in the Central Library is inspired by a room in Europe.

Because I lead architecture tours, I coax the fine arts librarian into opening a special room, built in Tudor style with a banquet table fit for Henry VIII --- except the table does not hold haunches of venison, it holds rare architecture books.

But in the touring through the building, some things were amiss: fluorescent lights cut into a carved ceiling, fake balconies to create extra work space, layers of grime, and the persistence of the old 1912 system to get a book.  The stacks were closed: you had to fill out a slip of paper, and hand it to someone at the main desk, and wait for your book to be retrieved for you.

The Library faced its hundredth anniversary, and made the decision to restore and renew.

This time the Library needed $70,000,000 in donations.  I helped reach this goal be buying a raffle ticket.  If I had won the raffle, John Grisham would name a character in his next novel after me. 

The $70,000,000 restoration was a success.  When I entered the Library after the restoration was finished, the building was so sparkling and glorious that I felt like I had never been in it before.  The carved ceilings are restored, the fake balconies are gone, there is no more grime, and the stacks are open.

In fact, the Central Library has now become a tourist attraction; just like it was when it was built one hundred years ago.

Click below (and then click on the Play icon) for a five-minute exploration of the building, with glorious music by Chris Zabriskie: The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan.  (The Bow is the bow of a ship: the MV Kaleetan - a Puget Sound ferry):

Tour of Central Library

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com