Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/263

 CHAPTER 11

Boston Public Library is now housed in a new building, which was opened to the public in 1895. From the architectural and artistic point of view it is probably the most beautiful building in America; but unfortunately, in many respects, the useful has been sacrificed to the ornamental, and so it does not entirely fulfil the ideal of a great public library.

It occupies one side of the chief square in the city, and has a street frontage on three of its sides, the fourth overlooking the yard of the Harvard Medical School. The building was designed by Mr. Charles F. M'Kim, of the firm of M'Kim, Mead, and White. Its facade may be said to be founded upon the model of that of .the Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève, in Paris; but although it is of the same type, the proportions and details are different, and the interior arrangements and plan have nothing in common.

The building is nearly square; it is 225 feet long and 227 feet deep, its height from the ground to the top of the cornice being 70 feet. The material 239