Black Stone Library

0

Blackstone Library

This article is about the historic Chicago Public Library branch .

T. B. Blackstone Memorial Library is a building that is part of the Chicago Public Library System and is named after Timothy Blackstone. The building was designed by Chicago architect Solon S. Beman. It is now known as the Chicago Public Library – Blackstone Branch and commonly referred to as Blackstone Library, or Blackstone Branch and sometimes Blackstone for short.

History 
  • The library was dedicated to the memory of Timothy Beach Blackstone, President of the Chicago and Alton Railroad from 1864 to 1899,period longer than any of his contemporaries.
  • Blackstone, who had died on May 26, 1900, was also the founding president of the Union Stock Yards.
  • He had owned the property on which the Blackstone Library now stands, and he donated this tract for the construction of the library after his death.
  • The library was built on the tract through a codicil in his will, carried out by his wife, Isabella Norton Blackstone (1838–1928), after his death. Blackstone Library was his contribution to the city where he had made his fortune and stands as a monument to his generosity. Blackstone is 13,794 sq ft (1,281.5 m2) and its original cost was $250,000 ($7,071,154 today)

Service

  • As one of the 79 Chicago Public Library branch libraries, Blackstone Library serves the Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Oakland community areas.
  • These communities include 17 elementary schools and 4 high schools The 2000 census service area population was 50,084.

Design

  • The building was designed by the architect Solon S. Beman
  • Modeled after Beman’s Merchant Tailors Building, the domed temple facing the lagoon in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and the Erechtheum at the AthenianAcropolis

The following is a summary of the building’s features 

Tiffany style dome; Marble column and walls in the rotunda and foyer; 4 overhead rotunda murals painted by Oliver Dennett Grover, mural painter for the World Columbian Exposition; 1 in (2.5 cm) square Italian marble mosaic flooring; glass-floored mezzanine; 2,800 pounds (1,300 kg) bronze plate, solid copper core outer front doors; 2 150 pounds (68 kg) lbs. bronze and glass inner doors; 12 inches (30 cm) thick granite walls; and ionic columns.