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Richmond Public Library Main Branch



Baskervill & Son

Dooley Library – 1930, Addition – 1972
101 East Franklin Street

On October 13th, 1924, after more than 20 years of effort, a group of civic activists opened the Richmond Public Library. The late Major Lewis Ginter’s former home at 901 West Franklin Street served as the first location. By 1930 a new art deco building had been constructed on Franklin Street between 1st and 2nd and was named the Dooley Library for Mrs. Sallie May Dooley whose will contained both $500,000 for the library and turned her home, Maymont, into a public park.

The art deco Dooley Library was the work of local firm Baskervill & Son. The exterior cladding, known as George Washington Stone, was taken from a quarry in Aquia Creek, Virginia. The interior lobby is a mix of Montanelle marble and Travertine, both imported from Italy. Plaster ceiling ornamentation reveals the interest in Central and South American pre-Columbian aesthetics that were pervasive at that time.

In 1972, Baskervill & Son were selected to expand the library at its current location. The current building spans the entire north side of its block and totals more than 140,000 square feet. The Dooley Library is invisible from the exterior but its lobby forms the core of what is now the Dooley wing. The central library’s exterior defies easy categorization, recalling elements of late international modernism, brutalism, and spare fascist neoclassicism. The dramatic entrance portico references the spare formalism of art deco and, in doing so, evokes a sense of monumentality often prized in public buildings.

At the same time, the central library was designed to be a sensitive complement to Linden Row across Franklin street, a notable pre Civil War housing terrace that is now a hotel. These two buildings share the theme of repetitive vertical elements spread over a horizontal mass. The 7 story Linden Tower provides a truly vertical punctuation to the block’s eastern end. The warm stone that wraps the central library’s exterior is a striking canvas for the shadows of street trees, particularly on the rear where there is a small plaza and fountain. The plaza fronts an active stretch of Main Street with a budding group of retail businesses, but the park is often gated and does not attract many users. How this plaza is used is, perhaps, a minor challenge in the library’s mission to stay relevant after nearly 90 years of service to Richmond.

D.OK.

Photographs by author.

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