Library Love

I read an article recently about Keith Richards, he aspired to be a librarian......how odd...and yet....fitting. Many of us found solace and adoration among the silent whispers of words on pages. It reminds me to tell you about the building that once held one of my favorite childhood libraries. For several years now, since DPS (Detroit Public Schools) has closed many many many many buildings, this Historical building has been sitting unused. Afraid it might end up like the high school that sits next to it or the precinct across the street...I have often pondered its fate, walked by it to say hello or driven people past it to add to its admirers. 

So many wonderful hours spent in the window seats following my obsessions, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Tallulah Bankhead and for a while everything I could read on becoming a Mormon. I wanted to be prepared in case Donny Osmond asked for my hand in marriage. Then as I discovered more dangerous and exciting men like Trelawny, Robin Hood and Rhett Butler, I wanted to be a lady of fiction. A heroine lost on the moors searching for Moonstones, shifting time on the strand and gleaning secrets about Mandalay. The large fieldstone building of my local library and the Tara like elegance of the downtown branch only lent themselves as scenery to fuel my fevered brain. 

At a recent neighborhood meeting I discovered the fate of my beloved library - A church will claim it, help make it an historic site and use it !! I am delighted that it will be saved! 

---Side note: 

Its construction began as a public building for law enforcement, before actual police stations. It wasn't completed when Detroit annexed a portion of Redford Township in 1926 and the building was finished by the city. 

Used as a library for a number of years (including my childhood of the 1970's). Then empty for a few years. It became a cultural center for the school system after being purchased along with the block it sat on - all the houses around it were torn down to put in a tennis court. The building has sat empty now for a few years as the public school system has battled over buildings and budgets. I am grateful it will be saved, hopefully restored and best of all, occupied and loved.