Toronto isn't alone in destroying its history: Cincinnati Public Library

[MetroMan]

This is a crime: http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/15-gorgeous-photos-of-the-old-cincinnati-library

 

[syn]

This is a crime: http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/15-gorgeous-photos-of-the-old-cincinnati-library

Stunning pics. Toronto has done a pretty bad job preserving history, but there's no doubt this happens all over NA.

 

[M.R.Victor]

Wow, what a pity. That place looks like a book-lovers' paradise. I could just imagine this restored to it's former glory, it would be an absolute hit

 

[jje1000]

Stunning pics. Toronto has done a pretty bad job preserving history, but there's no doubt this happens all over NA.

The problem is that Toronto had less to begin with, and now we have comparatively less than other cities. Even in cities like Baltimore and Los Angeles, there are still continuous stretches of undamaged urban fabric from before WWII.

The greatest loss is probably the wholesale demolition from lower Yonge Street eastwards into the St. Lawrence neighbourhood. If we had left that area alone, it would probably have become our equivalent of Montreal's old town.

 

[themarc]

But a liability nightmare with those stairs...

 

[Forgotten]

That would have been fun to make accessible.

 

[Mississauga Slim]

In old-school libraries, only staff had access to the stacks. As a patron you requested your book from the catalogue and a librarian would retrieve it from the stacks and bring it to you in the reading room. The Cincinnati Library was probably designed that way.

 

[One Nut Kruk]

What's with all the sadness? It's not like the building was ornate, or anything.

 

[adma]

Let's consider, too, *when* the demolition took place, i.e. mid-50s, before this fare was valued. By the 70s/80s to the present, it would have been much more clearly a "crime". (In fact, when I saw this thread title, I thought it referred to the 50s-era-onward replacement library...)

 

[junctionist]

Chicago is demolishing what look like significant heritage buidings right now, including striking landmarks. Here's a sample:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvaughn/9703919213/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvaughn/9538375139/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvaughn/7270210802/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvaughn/5882792648/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvaughn/5586914799/

This landmark church was dismantled piece by piece (not just the facade) and rebuilt in a town outside the city:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvaughn/5399642253/

Lots of buildings like this ornate theatre at risk of demolition by neglect:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvaughn/7117316023/

 

[Admiral Beez]

That would have been fun to make accessible.

For that reason alone it would probably have to be knocked down, or would at least be used as an excuse for knocking it down - like the Uptown Theatre.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Nothing this ornate, but if you are curious you really need to check out the heritage journal stacks at Gerstein Science Library at U of T - 5 stories of glass floored stacks with musty paper journals.

AoD

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

Nothing this ornate, but if you are curious you really need to check out the heritage journal stacks at Gerstein Science Library at U of T - 5 stories of glass floored stacks with musty paper journals.

AoD

I suspect that library, had it survived, would have been retrofitted with a system of vacuum tubes and dummy elevators similar to those installed during Robarts' original construction at U of T. Remember, when Robarts opened, it was a closed-stack library and no one was permitted access above the fourth or fifth floors (can't remember which). The dummy elevators I believe are still in use, and the vacuum tubes for sending book request slips to runners based on each floor are still there, but I don't think they've been operable since even when I started as an undergraduate (1993).

 

[Johnny Au]

I suspect that library, had it survived, would have been retrofitted with a system of vacuum tubes and dummy elevators similar to those installed during Robarts' original construction at U of T. Remember, when Robarts opened, it was a closed-stack library and no one was permitted access above the fourth or fifth floors (can't remember which). The dummy elevators I believe are still in use, and the vacuum tubes for sending book request slips to runners based on each floor are still there, but I don't think they've been operable since even when I started as an undergraduate (1993).

It was the sixth floor and above that was closed off to students.

No wonder why Robarts Library looks like a giant prison.

 

[tariqata]

Nothing this ornate, but if you are curious you really need to check out the heritage journal stacks at Gerstein Science Library at U of T - 5 stories of glass floored stacks with musty paper journals.

AoD

I seem to remember finding that whole set-up sort of disturbing when I was at U of T.