The old public library of Cincinnati was built in 1874 on the site reserved for an opera house. It was one of the country’s most beautiful and large public libraries, with a capacity for holding up to 300,000 books in its collection. With five levels of cast-iron shelving, a fabulous foyer, checkerboard marble floors, and an atrium lit by a skylight ceiling, the place was breathtaking. The building was located in Downtown Cincinnati at 629 Vine St. downtown Cincinnati. Five levels of bookshelves jammed the walls. Shafts of sunlight cut through the windows to provide ample illumination. The library was built at a cost of $383,594.53, around $7 million today.
Why was the Cincinnati Library demolished?
There were several reasons behind the demolition of this magnificent library. The books were stacked beyond the reach due to a lack of space. The ventilation system was failing, water leaks, the paint was peeling, and some walls were cracked. The building was also had safety issues that were too costly to fix. Eventually, these conditions would make the place unbearable. The management decided to move the library to another place.
In January 1955 a new contemporary library was opened at 800 Vine Street. The old building was sold to Leyman Corp. And by June of 1955, the old building was demolished. The site is now a parking garage. The three heads that once guarded the main entrance of the library were the only original features of the building that were saved and placed in the new library’s garden.
These historical photographs give us a glimpse of the Public Library of Cincinnati before it was demolished in 1955.
Cincinnati was one of the first cities to provide a truly public library, supported by tax dollars. It was also the first American city to open its library facilities on Sundays and the first to provide services for the blind. Additionally, Cincinnati Public Library was one of the first to provide young people with access to the facilities and check out books in the early 20th century, along with a system of youth-focused areas. In terms of the library, it was built in 1874 on the West Side of Cincinnati and served as the main branch for roughly 75 years. The main library in Cincinnati has always been on the progressive side of the public library system, so it’s not surprising that it was torn down to make way for a larger, more modern building. When it was built, the building was considered very modern. By the 1920s, the library had outgrown its building, which had central heating and an elevator. In 1955, a new library was built instead of replacing the old one, due to legal and financial issues. When it was demolished, the old building was overcrowded and neglected, and a new building had been overdue for 30+ years. Yea, nothing too dramatic, it was basically just torn down for the sake of progress. Let me know if this helps. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. At the museum center at Union Terminal, my brother works in the Cincinnati history department.
This new library is more accessible to more people, but this picture makes me sad that it was torn down. The corner would have been the perfect place for me to build a fort and live. Books are just my thing.
Could have been renovated, or repurposed with a new library built elsewhere. It’s sickening to destroy such a generation in the name of “progress.” If they were going to do it, I wish they would have done it in the 20s or 30s. The current library building is a piece of modernist crap. Even so, it serves as the heart of a library system that frequently wins national awards for its work as a library.
The majority of that information can be accessed with a soap bar-sized mixture of plastic, metal, and glass.
I remember my father purchasing the first commercially available handheld calculator for arithmetic only. In 1970, it was the size and weight of a brick, and cost $300. The technological advances in that relatively short time have been astounding. But…I can’t help but love books. In my house, they’re stacked floor to ceiling, and I buy and read more almost weekly.
Now we see libraries like this in movies.
Why demolished? So sad