This is a photo I took yesterday of Bates Hall. It has a 50 foot high barrel vault ceiling. The original oak bookcases and tables have been in use since the building’s opening in 1895. The BPL was the first major library to hold a designated children’s library. It is the first free, large municipally funded public library in the US, the first to lend books, and is one of the nation’s largest research libraries.
