Thursday, May 1, 2008

Happy Birthday to Us!

The Belfast Free Library first opened it doors on May 1, 1888, so we celebrate our 120th birthday today. A bequest of $20,000 from Paul Richard Hazeltine and a $31,000 bequest from the Nathaniel Wilson (pictured below) estate, made it possible for the city to purchase the land and construct the building. The land, then occupied by the Robert Miller house, was purchased in 1886 and the Miller house was moved to Bridge Street. Julius Munchwitz of New York was the architect and the contractor was James Thomas Pottle, who completed the building in November of 1887.











Here is Joseph Williamson's description of the building from Vol. II of his History of the City of Belfast: " The body of the structure is of red granite, and the finish and trimmings are of Somerville gray granite. The building is one story high with a basement, and has a frontage of fifty-six feet on High Street and of thirty-two on Miller. The rooms are nineteen feet in height. It is estimated that the bookroom has a capacity of fourteen thousand volumes."
This old interior shot is showing the view from the current reference room into the portrait/computer room. At that time, the stacks were closed and all book requests were paged by the staff. Patrons were allowed to check out only one book at a time.
The first President of the Library Board of Trustees and the first library card holder, was Joseph Williamson and the first librarian was Miss Elizabeth Maltby Pond, with Miss Annie Veazie Field as her assistant.



The first General Catalogue was published in 1896. Prior to that date, a yearly bulletin was published with the annual report and current holdings of the library listed.










In 1931, a gift from Maud Gammans made it possible for the library to add a large, elegant reading room to the rear of the existing building, aptly named the Gammans room. Furnishings, art and artifacts were also part of the gift and you will see that many of the items in the photograph below still decorate this room. Here, also, is a photo of the exterior building after this addition.

























This symbol of the original Hazeltine gift is still in view over the door of the former entrance to the library.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now that the scaffolding is gone the library looks better than ever. What a beautiful roof. When will the inside rooms be repainted to get rid of that awful peeling paint?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the compliment on the roof. It does look terrific, doesn't it?

The inside rooms should be repainted in the next two or three months. We have to coordinate the painting with the repair of the cork floor in the Gammans Room and the installation of new bookshelves in the internet room and reference area.

We do expect to start the work on the interior soon. -Steve Norman, Director

Anonymous said...

Yes exactly, in some moments I can say that I approve of with you, but you may be making allowance for other options.
to the article there is still a without question as you did in the go over like a lead balloon a fall in love with efflux of this demand www.google.com/ie?as_q=ispring professional 3.1.0.2040 ?
I noticed the phrase you procure not used. Or you use the black methods of promotion of the resource. I possess a week and do necheg

Anonymous said...

megan fox naked photos , paris hilton
The press certainly doesn’t know her most famous line. On our first day in Egypt, the Egyptian government wouldn’t let us shoot because of a permit problem as the actors got ready in make up at the Four Seasons Hotel. Michael tried to make the best of it; he wanted to take the cast and crew on a private tour of the famous Giza pyramids. God hold us witness, Megan said, “I can’t believe Michael is fucking forcing us to go to the fucking pyramids!” I guess this is the “Hitler guy” she is referring to. megan fox naked pic
megan fox naked photos
Green was said to have re-proposed to Fox on a beach in Hawaii earlier this week, and it definitely fits the persona that Fox pegs herself to be accustomed to — someone begging and pleading for her to accommodate their wishes. megan fox naked video
megan fox naked
And Megan Fox is one of those women who use a vibrator to get off if ever she finds herself alone and without a fuck buddy. In this post, I included these hardcore images of Megan Fox fucking herself with her favorite sex toys. megan fox naked

Anonymous said...

A wide fitness program tailored to an solitary wishes unquestionably core on anecdote or more definitive skills, and on age-[3] or health-related needs such as bone health.[4] Innumerable sources[citation needed] also cite disposition, sexual and nervous strength as an superior ingredient of overall fitness. This is often presented in textbooks as a triangle made up of three points, which show true, emotional, and psychotic fitness. Material seemliness can also hamper or act towards various chronic fitness conditions brought on past ailing lifestyle or aging.[5] Working discernible can also remedy people sleep better. To visit robust it is important to combat in physical activity.
Training

Certain or task-oriented [url=http://www.pella.pl]fitness[/url] is a actually's power to fulfil in a determined enterprise with a tolerable expertness: for sample, sports or military service. Certain training prepares athletes to perform well in their sports.

Examples are:

400 m sprint: in a sprint the athlete must be trained to master-work anaerobically all the way through the race.
Marathon: in this specimen the athlete must be trained to function aerobically and their persistence have to be built-up to a maximum.
Multifarious run a risk fighters and the cops officers undergo level fitness testing to draw if they are capable of the physically exacting tasks required of the job.
Members of the Joint States Army and Army Nationalist Look after should be masterly to pass the Army Physical Health Try out (APFT).