The Central Library

The Central Library. . , Dramatic Saga , The saga of the Los Angeles Central Library is as dramatic a tale as can be found in the books on its shelves , a unique and beloved building designed by a man who died before it could be finished, nearly torn down by city fathers, nearly undone by two arson fires, only to rise from its own ashes like a phoenix. , The library originated in a collection of donated books and cherished six-month-old newspapers begun in 1844 in a town of fewer than 1,500 people. And for decades, the city's collection remained a movable feast of movable type, shifting from donated quarters to a floor of old City Hall to a department store, always overflowing the premises. , “...yearns so for California...” , For the irresistible price of one dollar the city acquired the land for the new library , the site of the old state Normal School. The architect selected was Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, designer of the Nebraska State Capitol, a man who first built in California in 1902 and so adored the place that he wrote once that his heart "yearns so for California and everything this magic name connotes." , Palace of Beauty for a Temple of Wisdom , A dozen murals, 9,000 square feet in all, the work of Dean Cornwell, chronicle the history of California. The lighted globe adorned by zodiac symbols was lowered to the ground during the blackouts of World War II. The striking north staircase is guarded by two sphinxes of black Belgian marble, representing the mysteries of knowledge and crouching at the feet of the Statue of Civilization. , Goodhue redrafted his original rounded dome into a more timeless pyramidal tower , less expensive, and with more room for books , and topped it with "the light of learning torch.” Over one entrance was incised, “in the world of affairs we live in our own age; in books we live in all ages.” , From Arson Flames to a New Found Fame , But the library became a victim of its own success. What Goodhue envisioned in the 1920s as a home for a million books, loaned out that many in October 1931 alone. By the 1950s it was antiquated and impossibly overcrowded. A 1685 Shakespeare Fourth Folio was found wrapped in blankets in a utility closet. The staff carried flashlights to negotiate the dim stacks. Plugging in a coffee pot could blow a circuit. The fabulous murals were coated with decades of dirt and grease. (This would turn out to be a blessing, as the grime protected them from the worst smoke damage in the 1986 arson fire). , For more than 20 years, studies and votes came and went: to tear it down, to restore it, to sell it. Finally, a suggestion to sell the library's air rights to build adjacent skyscrapers and use the money to restore and expand the library with a grand new wing seemed about to happen. Then came April 29, 1986. An arson fire destroyed 370,000 books and documents , the equivalent of four smaller libraries. Another, smaller arson fire followed in September. , But the fires that horrified Los Angeles also galvanized both its leaders and its residents. Volunteers labored to salvage the surviving books, and civic leaders and the public raised millions toward restoring the old building. With an exterior of green terra-cotta, the dramatic new wing , an eight-story atrium built partly below ground , is as deep as the Goodhue library is broad. It is open and bright, lined with floors of reading rooms. Escalators move below enormous fiberglass and aluminum free-form chandeliers. Designers meticulously reproduced vintage light fixtures, the old acorn chair motifs, and even derived carpet patterns from the building's original stencil and tile work. , Outside, the grounds have been redesigned as the Maguire Gardens, invitingly set about with trees and pools and benches. Cut into the facings of the long ascent of steps to the west entrance are inscriptions in many typefaces and languages and a bronze map of the world pinpoints the sites of history’s book burnings and its great library fires. , Central Characters , An excerpt from the novel "Brave New World," in Aldous Huxley's own scribbled handwriting, is one of the inscriptions on the library's west steps. Huxley was a Los Angeles transplant reared on the libraries of England, who once wrote Los Angeles' librarian to compliment her on fine service and "a sound selection of books." Another celebrated patron was author Ray Bradbury, who often spoke of educating himself by the Central Library's shelves. , Among others who figured large in the library's history was onetime head librarian Charles F. Lummis, an irrepressible character, a booster of Southwest culture, a writer, magazine publisher and author, and founder of the Southwest Museum. He was so incensed by what he considered overcolored nonfiction and historical romances that he inserted a "poison" label in such books to advise readers that this was thin and dubious stuff. , Another was librarian Tessa Kelso, who in the 1890s smoked cigarettes in public, wore her hair cut short, and fought back a clergyman's disapproval of a French book on the library shelves. Her most significant contribution , abolishing borrowing fees and making the library a free service.