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The central library in downtown Los Angeles has seen its fair share of colorful moments.
The architectural gem, which turned 100 this week, has been the backdrop to the epic street battle between Pacino, De Niro et al in Heat, and was where the original Ghostbusters came across their first ghost, a friendly older lady librarian who was anything but. Television shows such as Moonlighting, Murder, She Wrote and LA Law filmed there too, when characters were researching or investigating a case.
But the library has also been touched by the darker side of LA life. The “Night Stalker” serial killer Richard Ramirez came here in 1985 and asked for books on astrology and torture. Ever helpful, the librarian directed him to the correct department and thought little more about the unsettling man with rotten teeth – until he recognized him when he was arrested several days later.
Then there was the still-officially unsolved 1986 arson, which destroyed 400,000 volumes and shut the library for seven years.
“People think that libraries are quiet, but they really aren’t. They rumble with voices and footsteps and a whole orchestral range of book-related noises,” wrote Susan Orlean in The Library Book, her 2018 bestseller about the central library.
That was certainly true this past week, when the author was one of the estimated 12,000 people who swelled through the corridors, halls, courtyards, rotunda, reading rooms and sculpture garden in celebration of its 100th anniversary.
The art deco-era library, according to L Is for Librarian: The ABCs of Los Angeles Central Library, houses nearly 3m books and 89 miles of shelves. The library’s most dazzling and Instagram-worthy feature is the central rotunda – cathedral-like and lined with Dean Cornwell’s romanticized murals of California history. Visitors’ eyes are drawn up to the Zodiac chandelier with its stained-glass globe and zodiac signs.
“It remains one of the city’s great civic spaces, a place that’s used, loved and valued every single day,” says Stephen Gee, author of Los Angeles Central Library: A History of Its Art and Architecture. “It’s one of the few places in modern Los Angeles where everyone is welcome, regardless of their background or circumstances. It doesn’t ask who you are or what you earn.”
After outgrowing several smaller downtown locations, the municipal dream of a monumental downtown library was financed through a $2.5m municipal bond measure approved in 1921.
Designed by architect Bertram Goodhue, the central library officially opened its doors in 1926.
“Goodhue promised a library that was ‘Spanish in style – at least in spirit’,” noted Gee in his book, “but what he ultimately created was something far more original: a remarkable fusion of Spanish, Egyptian, Byzantine and Islamic influences.”
That fusion is apparent whether you approach the library from Hope Street, which was the original, mural-lined tunnel entrance, or through the sculpture and fountain-spotted Maguire gardens.
Towering over the main entrance are Hesper and Phosphor, the ancient Greek morning and evening stars; Hesper holds a scroll with the names of eastern philosophers, Moses, Buddha and Mohammad.
Most noticeable to the first-time visitor is the colored mosaic pyramid on the building’s roof, which features a sunburst and is topped by a handheld torch symbolizing the light of learning.
The Egyptian theme is also seen in two black-gold sphinxes, which rest at the top of a staircase on either side of a female statue representing civilization.
One of the longest lines at this week’s centennial festival was for a vintage injection-mold vending machine, which produced small replica wax models of those sphinxes.
Christina Rice, senior librarian of the library’s vast photo collection and a Central 100 co-chair, christened the whirring, jukebox-like machine “Mold-A-Central”, and obtaining one had been on her wishlist for years.
“About a dozen years ago, we received an inquiry in the photo collection from a patron looking for images of these machines,” Rice said.
It unleashed a flood of childhood memories for Rice, who recalled getting animal models at the LA zoo and admits that she “became a little bit obsessed with them”. After finally tracking down one of the machines, she had it installed for the Central 100 event. “It will be a permanent fixture, and we’ll be changing out the molds periodically,” she said.
Elsewhere, people took former catalogue cards and used them to clack out poems on vintage typewriters, while down in the history and genealogy department the cards in the huge family names cabinet were being eagerly thumbed through.
“People do love card catalogues,” says Kelly Wallace, the department’s California history specialist. “I find that Los Angeles has come of age in terms of taking an interest in its own history. Every day, people come to the library to research the history of their families, homes, neighborhoods and the city around them.”
19 Jul 2010. Photograph: Ted Soqui/Corbis/Getty Images
Rice explains that the library is as relevant as ever, despite those who might declare libraries “obsolete”. She mentions how the central library provides services for job hunters and those seeking a path to citizenship or looking to learn a new language. “We have a program for adults to earn their high school diploma, loads of resources to get teens prepared for college and literacy assistance for patrons of all ages.”
On the science, technology and patents floor is the Octavia lab, which offers 3D printing, digitizers, converters, vinyl cutters, large-format printers – and sewing and embroidery machines. The facility is named after a former frequent patron, the late Octavia Butler, the renowned science fiction author who said: “Public libraries … are the open universities of America.”
The daily business of the library continued during the events, but the most popular book of the day was Luceros y Penumras (roughly translated as “starlight and shadows”) by Daniel González. At 31-by-20ft and 11ft tall, it’s the world’s largest pop-up book, according to the library, and the 1,800lb work was carefully assembled in the center of the rotunda.
But perhaps the best news of the day? Five hundred and eighty-eight people were issued new library cards.
