Poole's Plans

Before leaving Chicago I paused to read about the physical home of the The Newberry Library at 60 W. Walton Street.  Maybe I should rephrase that because if the Newberry was a home it would be called a mansion or even a palace.  Predictably, there was a fascinating story behind the design and construction of the building that drew me in like a lake trout in spring - I was hooked.  Houghton Wetherold’s meticulous article, The Architectural History of the Newberry Library, told the tale.  

Before even one stone was laid for the foundation of the library a passionate battle brewed about the design.  Walter Newberry (and his daughter and his wife) were long gone before the funding for the library became available in 1885 (see yesterday’s post). Eliphalet W. Blatchford and William H. Bradley, the first trustees, hired the eminent librarian Dr. William Frederick Poole to oversee the construction at the Newberry family homestead in 1887, the site was later moved to Washington Park.  Poole, a Yale graduate, had already been at the helm of the Boston Atheneum and The Chicago Public Library when he took charge at the Newberry.  He was a scholar and historian, in addition to being an expert in library administration.  He is described as, “brusque, unswerving, clever, endowed with tremendous energy and force of will”, not the type of character I’d like to get into an argument with.  

Braver men than I did argue with Poole, at the ALA meeting in 1881, about his library design ideas. Poole was against the cathedral type library (think Bates Hall or Rose Room but remember that both were yet to be built!) and argued that they were an inefficient use of space, had poor climate control, were too noisy, made it difficult to locate books and were a fire hazard (apparently he was a ‘practical pete’ and was not swayed by such things as inspiration or great beauty).  Instead he advocated for a library divided into separate rooms by subject matter, each with their own books on shelves that were low enough to allow sunlight from large windows.  Each room would have its own librarian.  Indeed the separate rooms solved the issues of space, fires, book location and solitude but librarians were not convinced that Poole’s proposal was the right solution.  What about scholars working on more than one subject?  Would there be enough natural light?  And how about the sheer number of librarians needed to staff all those rooms?  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post when these burning questions, and more, are answered...