Central Library
The history
1301 Olive Street, 1912, Cass Gilbert — the architect of the Woolworth Building and the U.S. Supreme Court — paid for with Andrew Carnegie's money. Italian Renaissance granite outside; inside, a barrel-vaulted Great Hall modelled on the tepidarium of the Baths of Caracalla, with a coffered ceiling, and a delivery room ceiling copied from a Renaissance palace in Siena. A $70 million restoration reopened it in 2012. Free, and the best room in the city after Union Station.
In brief
Central Library at 1301 Olive Street is the main branch of the St. Louis Public Library, designed by Cass Gilbert and opened in 1912 with a $1 million gift from Andrew Carnegie — the largest single Carnegie library grant made to any American city. Gilbert, who went on to the Woolworth Building and the U.S. Supreme Court, faced it in Maine granite in the Italian Renaissance manner and vaulted the Great Hall on the model of a Roman bath. A $70 million restoration by Cannon Design reopened the building in December 2012. It is a National Historic Landmark.
Read more →The archival photograph
