The 1967 library. It was part of an urban renewal complex that included a Civic Center and City Hall; this was the last phase, alas, and reflects some regrettable trends in architecture. The windows are thin, the exterior forbidding – but the white columns do hint at the classical past, and the two-story tall reading / stacks rooms seemed amazingly modern at the time. It had a mezzanine level to which only the elect could ascend. How I longed to sneak up there and see what mysteries resided in the windowless offices between the wings.

It was here that I first discovered the most influential documents in my life: the bound editions of Life magazine, from 1937 to 1963.