Posted on Jun 15, 2022
OKI Wanna Know: What happened to the old Cincinnati library?
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David Sherman of the West End wants to know what really happened to the old Cincinnati library.
"Well, I've always seen these photos of the Old Main library on Vine Street, and I wondered what happened to it, because it's an immaculate building and the inside was incredibly beautiful," he says.
One of the pictures he's talking about shows tall pillars reaching up to the ceiling over several stories of shelving with elaborate carvings on the ends. There are low railings, and books — lots and lots and lots of books. It looks almost magical. If you added floating candles and a couple of owls, it could be straight out of a Harry Potter movie.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County's current main library at Vine and 8th and 9th streets is not the first incarnation of the hallowed establishment. It's the third. The first was located on the second floor of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, at 6th and Vine, where the former Terrace Plaza Hotel now stands.
"Well, I've always seen these photos of the Old Main library on Vine Street, and I wondered what happened to it, because it's an immaculate building and the inside was incredibly beautiful," he says.
One of the pictures he's talking about shows tall pillars reaching up to the ceiling over several stories of shelving with elaborate carvings on the ends. There are low railings, and books — lots and lots and lots of books. It looks almost magical. If you added floating candles and a couple of owls, it could be straight out of a Harry Potter movie.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County's current main library at Vine and 8th and 9th streets is not the first incarnation of the hallowed establishment. It's the third. The first was located on the second floor of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, at 6th and Vine, where the former Terrace Plaza Hotel now stands.
OKI Wanna Know: What happened to the old Cincinnati library?
Posted from wvxu.org
Cincinnati
Photography
American History
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Moorman says before Old Main was electrified, it was lit by gaslight, which is not easy to read by. And even after electric lights came on, he says the building was still rather dark.
And it was dangerous. The public wasn't allowed up in the stacks. Instead, pages would pull books and re-shelve them. At least two pages died, according to the book Free & Public, by John Fleischman, and researched in part by Moorman. In 1875, 15-year-old Willie Haldecamp took the elevator to the third floor with books and fell. In 1902, book shelver John Sloan fell down the elevator shaft.
Old Main was torn down in 1955 after the current Main Library was built
Moorman says he never heard any charming stories from those who worked in Old Main.
"To their point of view, they were leaving behind the 19th century," he says.
Besides the working conditions, Christopher Smith has a theory on why the building wasn't saved. "Because that's just what we did in the '50s. There was no thought of retrofitting, remodeling, you just assumed it was going to be razed."
..."Moorman says before Old Main was electrified, it was lit by gaslight, which is not easy to read by. And even after electric lights came on, he says the building was still rather dark.
And it was dangerous. The public wasn't allowed up in the stacks. Instead, pages would pull books and re-shelve them. At least two pages died, according to the book Free & Public, by John Fleischman, and researched in part by Moorman. In 1875, 15-year-old Willie Haldecamp took the elevator to the third floor with books and fell. In 1902, book shelver John Sloan fell down the elevator shaft.
Old Main was torn down in 1955 after the current Main Library was built
Moorman says he never heard any charming stories from those who worked in Old Main.
"To their point of view, they were leaving behind the 19th century," he says.
Besides the working conditions, Christopher Smith has a theory on why the building wasn't saved. "Because that's just what we did in the '50s. There was no thought of retrofitting, remodeling, you just assumed it was going to be razed."
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