Sunday, February 6, 2011

Library of the Week: Amelia S. Givin Free Library, Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania

I’m in the mood for a cozy reading room this week. Let’s find a chair by one of the windows and settle in with a novel. Our library of the week is an architectural jewel.

One of the finest examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque architecture is the Amelia S. Givin Free Library in Mt. Holly Springs, Pennsylvania. The architect was James T. Steen from Pittsburgh; he was a prominent architect who also designed the old Western Pennsylvania University (now University of Pittsburgh). The original building was built in 1889 of brown limestone quarried from nearby Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. The interior contains examples of Moorish fretwork woodwork done by Moses Ransom of Cleveland, Ohio.

In addition to the lovely woodwork, there is an intricately tiled fireplace, semicircular arched windows, and a circular reading room. The building has been expanded, adding greatly to the size available for the library's book collection. The library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 2004.


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