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Book It By Laurie Bain Wilson
Wherever I travel, I always visit the local library. Libraries are home to many books, of course, but it's often the library itself that holds the most compelling stories — giving an authentic sense of a place that tourist attractions often don't. My favorite library is a small turquoise jewel, the Mackinac Island Public Library, located on Mackinac Island in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This gem is painted varying shades of vibrant colors — inside walls are bright turquoise and quartz rose pink, and the building's exterior is a robin's egg blue.
My favorite library is a small turquoise jewel, the Mackinac Island Public Library.
Not surprising in a city that revolutionized America, The Boston Public Library (BPL), which debuted in 1848, pioneered the public library service in this country as the first large, free municipal library; the first public library to lend books; the first to have a branch library and the first to have a children's room. The present Central Library in Copley Square has been home to the library and served as its headquarters since 1895, when Charles Follen McKim built his 'palace for the people.' "When travelers come to the Boston Public Library, they aren't just coming to see a beautiful, historical building," says Bailey Watroba of BPL. "The experience should also leave them feeling heartened that today's libraries are thriving epicenters of civic engagement."
The library is basically one main reading room, with an antique chandelier that presides when the natural light isn't bathing those bright walls — that chandelier once hung in John Jacob Astor's mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. A smaller room, The Rosa Webb Room, holds the Mackinac Collection, a historic collection on Michigan; it is named for the woman who established Mackinac's first library. "The back porch of the library is everyone's secret spot no one else knows about," says director Anne St. Onge. There are Adirondack chairs there to sit and take in the lake view — and to read, of course. My second favorite library, the Boston Public Library, is another story entirely and should be on every traveler's list when visiting the Massachusetts city.
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