Thanks Josh

Photo by John Fischer

I wrote about Bates Hall way back in January, but that was before I actually sat in it.  You can tell a lot from a picture but its never the same as being there in person.  I hoped that going to Bates Hall would be inspirational  and I was not disappointed.  

I am not a religious person but I do believe that beauty can lift the spirit, that it can release you for a moment, to rise above common experience and ascend to a higher level.  It takes a powerful bolt of awe to create the effect, something like a mountaintop, sunset, cathedral, snowfall or ocean.  

It has to be something extraordinarily beautiful and rare that you are lucky enough to witness.  One early morning on my run I was treated to the sight of eight deer bounding through the mist and disappear into the woods and I was paralyzed with delight.
 
This beauty bolt is what struck me in Bates Hall.  I stepped through the threshold and stopped immediately so I could look up without crashing into someone.  Just the scale of the room is awesome, 50 feet high and 200 feet long, far more similar to a cathedral than to most libraries.  Even my daughter, ready to shop on Newbury Street, was impressed.  

We found an empty spot at one of the long wooden tables and sat gazing at the soaring vaulted ceiling, the elegant green reading lamps, the book lined walls and the giant windows.  What a space.  I wondered how anyone could get a thing done in here without being totally distracted.  When Joshua Bates asked that his money be used toward a reading room that was “an ornament to the city”, I’m confident that he could not even imagine a space such as this.  

Here is a copy of Bates’s original letter to the trustees from the Boston Public Library website:


October 1, 1852

Dear Sir:
I am indebted to you for a copy of the Report of the Trustees of the Public Library for the City of Boston, which I have perused with great interest, being impressed with the importance to rising and future generations of such a Library as is recommended; and while I am sure that, in a liberal and wealthy community like that of Boston, there will be no want of funds to carry out the recommendations of the Trustees, it may accelerate its accomplishment and establish the Library at once, on a scale to do credit to the City, if I am allowed to pay for the books required, which I am quite willing to do,-leaving to the City to provide the building and take care of the expenses.

The only condition that I ask is, that the building shall be such as to be an ornament to the City, that there shall be a room for one hundred to one hundred and fifty persons to sit at reading-tables, that it shall be perfectly free to all, with no other restrictions than may be necessary for the preservation of the books. What the building may cost, I am unable to estimate, but the books, counting additions during my life time, I estimate at $50,000, which I shall gladly contribute, and consider it but a small return for the many acts of confidence and kindness which I have received from my many friends in your City.

Believe me, Dear Sir, very truly yours,
Joshua Bates

Mission Accomplished.