Today for My World I go West across the Main Street bridge and at the next red light at Route 43N I reach the Kent Free Library. This is an important part of my life for books and DVDs. The library was started in 1893 and the building was built in 1902 with a philanthropic gift of $11,500 from Andrew Carnegie (The founder of U S Steel). That portion of the Library still exist on the corner of Main and River Streets.
There was a major expansion two years ago and that can be seen to the right of the Carnegie wing with the front entrance. The taxpayers funded the expansion of the library.
I was a little artistic and took a photo up the clock tower.
This is looking back from the tower and the rectangular part is part of the first expansion of the library. The round tower and entrance is part of the second expansion.
The library even has a drive through feature for getting and returning books.
This is the parking lot and the entrance I always use.
The best feature of the library is that it is tied in by computer to a group of five libraries in the Portage County area. You can by computer request any book, book on tape, CD or DVD that is located in any of the other libraries in the area. They inform you when it has reached your library and you have five days to pick the item up. I normally have up to the fifteen reserve limit on request so I can get any item I want from the system. They even have recently released DVDs for your use. I hope you enjoyed this small part of Kent and a large part of my life. Most of the staff know me when I come into the building and I am there usually twice a week.
67 comments:
Looks like a great place! I love your photos and the clock tower shot:)
That's some library! Pretty cool, drive thru, too. You should allow yourself to get artistic more often..great photo of the clock tower!! Thanks for stopping by my blog today, always good to hear from you...where oh where are those black squirrels...??
Great post and wonderful photo's.
Thanks for sharing your world with us!!
Take care.
Beautiful your World, good shots and report.
Library is culture and information.
Luiz Ramos
Love the architecture and great pics as always.
Cheers!
Regina In Pictures
That is QUITE a library, and such pretty architecture!
Lucky you to have such a large library so close by!
Looks like a wonderful library. I really appreciate our local library. The clock photo is a neat one.
That looks like a great library and I enjoyed your different shots showing the parts of it.
What a fabulous library! They're a really big part of my life, I know, and always enjoy seeing and reading about others. Your pictures are really lovely. Thanks for sharing them and the information.
I like clock towers old and new
I guess, if you're not out fishing, you're inside?
This is a great addition to any town. Drive-thru is a good feature.
Uh - a drive through library! Cool!
Great images today, Tom!
Cheers, Klaus
Very impressive structure. A drive-through - that is way cool.
I liked the angle on the clock!
The library is very elegant knowing its age...books are an important part of our lives and I understand why you enjoy coming back to this place...
Libraries RULE! I worked in them for years and it was the only work I ever loved, a calling.
Whenever we travel, I sniff out the library and visit it first--thank you for letting me 'visit' yours!
It almost would keep me out of there, cause the building is so smart, id want to stay outside to photograph it.
What a cool library. I am teaching my cildren the value of the library. Two summers ago between the 4 of us we read over 400 books, no joke. They get points at school for reading and taking a test and one of our girls had the most points in the entire school. Thanks for sharing.
That's a wonderful building and I would love to visit that library! I bet it has some really good books, etc... a great selection!!!!
I love that clock tower photo... awesome perspective... up up up!!
Have a wonderful week!
~Michele~
Very nice. What would we do without our libraries -- which we too often take for granted. Your post shows a real appreciation for these important community institutions.
Always good to see libraries, especially new ones being built.
Libraries are truly the lifeblood of a community. Yours has such character is looks well taken care of.
Oh. And I really like your clocktower photo, too. :)
Thanks for a view of your world today,
Lisa
New Mexico, USA
Well, how cool is that?!
Great library! We love ours too. Not as big, but it gets the job done.
Love the library, FG... BUT--my favorite picture is the clock tower. WOW---I am 'crazy' about clocks!!! Someday I want an authentic grandfather clock in my home... SOMEDAY! Sigh!!!!
Great shots of the library, and what a facility to have in your town.
an old library getting spruced up:) oh, i love libraries and bless the souls who helped for its expansion. i like your clock tower pic and those burning bushes.
Thanks for the library story this week..great photos as usual! You always have an interesting story for us.
I also liked the burning bush below..amazing!
Annie
Carnegie sure did give back later in his life! That's one incredible place.
Library buildings always seem to have the neatest architecture! Thanks for showing me around again!
What a wonderful visit! These are great phots of the exterior! I love the brick exterior. Are you allowed to photograph any of the interior?
Lovely visit! Thanks for the visit!
How impressive a drive through library. Great informative post with greta photos Thanks.
The Carnegie Library buildings are almost all lovely and all are interesting architecturally. There's one in a small town not far from here that has a resident cat named Andrew after the great man himself.
This looks to be a wonderful place in which to spend some leisurely time reading. I love the clock tower. Very nice photos and post!
Nice post on Kent and some great photos.
Thanks for sharing,
Troy
Thanks for the visit.
What would we do without libraries?? I spend so much time in mine that I have my 14 digit number memorized :-) Carnegie did a wonderful thing with all of the libraries he gifted to cities. We have 2 here and they all seem to look alike wherever you see them :-) Great post!
Wonderful place to be Fishing guy. Didn't see you on Mr Linky for My world though(??)
Great shot of the clock tower!
A library is sooooo awesome, and yours looks more awesome than most! Neat pictures.
Cool, very neat and beautiful library.
Great photos.
The stories aren't sad. It depends how you look at them. The people in these stories give us lessons of life.
books and movies. really a big part of my world too. thanks for another wonderful post.
by the way, hope you didn't fall on your back when you took the tower pic lol. have a nice day FG.
A drive though-library, that was a new one for me. Great photos and thank you for posting about a library form a passionate librarian! And I'm really happy to read all those comments by people who love books and libraries, too :)
I love going to the library! I wish mine had a drive through-how neat is that! Love the shot looking up at the clock.
awesome library...don't you just love how libraries interconnect now? it makes so much more sense to do that. and the drive through window...now that is a smart move as well.
thank you for sharing with us.
erin
That's a grand library. It reminds me of the newest library we have, except it way over on the other side of town. That's the thing about big cities...I can't always visit the prettiest libraries.
My library is pretty old, it's moldy, but it's still graceful. I'll probably borrow this idea of showing you my library, just in contrast.
Thank You for sharing your world with us!!!and Thanks for viewing my world too.
Have a nice day.
Old meets new. It's always a happy circumstance when that works out.
I love the shot of the clock tower (though I probably would've cropped out the security camera... but that's just me).
BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS AND PLACE!!
Never heard of a drive thru before, that's very cool. Love the diversity of the building. The first one has very beautiful windows - the stuck above it.
I've had a couple of people remind me of using the library. I used to love it as a kid. I think I'm going to re-establish a relationship with mine. Great post. :-)
I have always and always loved libraries. I wish more rich folks would do what Carneigi did and create more libraries, museums and art galleries for the common man to enjoy.
That is a very beautiful building. I love the tower shot, FG.
You gave all of us a great theme for My World---our local library.
what an imposing building for a library, i love the clock tower shot.
Hi Tom. Great shots. I especially like the library, because I like old buildings, and I also like the clock tower.
Did you get all the snow that was predicted?
Take care and have a great week.
Lisa
Hi, Fishing
I thank you for sharing your world. Grateful for the nice visit.
Hugs, Denise
I would like to read in a place like that! I can imagine how is the building from inside...
I love libraries, but since I work at a bookstore, I don't go often, any more. I was raised in a city with many libraries, where I live now, a small town, we have only one, but it's a good one. Your photos and post are great.
Library's are great places. Thanks for sharing yours.
Fishing Guy,
Ty for helping me out.
A Carnignie Library, how cool. There aren't many of those around any more.
Andrew Carnegie did a lot for readers all over the US. It's great that they kept the old building when expanding the library. Looks like a lot more room. The Frederick library expanded several years ago. One of the new features is an online catalogue which is available from home. Nice seeing this part of your world.
What a great Library you have there, i like how you captured the clock tower.
Great photos, thanks for sharing your world.
Nice to know about your world. :)
Come see a part of mine at:
http://indicainq8.wordpress.com
- celine
Looks as if you have tons of comments, but I must add mine...our little library here in town was one from Andrew C. too...it has been added to, but not near like yours.
But like you, I use my computer to access the library...do searches on what books they have, place a hold on them, renew them, etc. I literally have spells where I spend hours at the libray while sitting right here at home. NOT near as hard on the back...LOL
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