Snow Day Visit To The Detroit Public Library

A snowy, gloomy February afternoon is perfect for a visit to the Detroit Public Library. Designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1921, it is a visual feast, with architectural details, sculpture, woodwork, mosaics and paintings to explore. Just remember to look up as you walk through...the ceilings are the best part.

The grounds in front of the library are enclosed by hedges and wrought iron gates.  Today they are blanketed with fresh snow and only one other set of footprints, a peaceful park removed from the street traffic and the crush of people inside the library..

The interior of the original library is ornate and grand. The coffered ceilings of the lobby, designed after sixteenth century Italian monumental buildings, below....

Up the stairs to the reading rooms and collections on the second floor.....these vaulted ceilings are in the Italian Renaissance style after works by Raphael at the Vatican, by Edwin H. Blashfield, a leading muralist of the day. 

It is pretty dark in some of these rooms. I have a point and shoot camera, and unsteady hands, so there are no photos of the Delivery Room, with don't-miss murals by Gari Melchers. He was born in Detroit, but left at seventeen to study painting in Europe and eventually settled in Virginia and New York. Detroit BikeBlog has some great photos here.

The gates lead to the Fine Arts room. It can be rented for special events. Windows that stretch from the floor almost to the ceiling look out over the loggia, Woodward and the DIA....

Whenever I come to the this room, I stand with my face pressed up against the glass, looking up at the Frederick Wiley mosaics on the loggia. I wish you could see the vivid colors, made of enameled baked clay from Pewabic Pottery. They depict Shakespeare's seven ages of man. This section says, "Strange eventful history is second childishness".

Below, the second floor of the Cass Entrance Lobby... this part of the Library was added in 1963.

"Exploration", by Joseph DeLauro, 1967, near the Cass Entrance....

Another explorer, in a mosaic by Millard Sheets, over the Cass Entrance, with the Walt Whitman quote that's below him...

For information on hours, collections, check-out policies, et cetera, the Detroit Public Library site is here.