We are excited to share the virtual edition of our new Art & Architecture Booklet. This interpretive guide celebrates the unique and notable architectural history of the Central Library in Copley Square, home to some of the nation’s most important murals and public art installations. Founded in 1848, the BPL is the first urban, municipally funded, free public library in the United States. Today, the Central Library in Copley Square includes the 1895 McKim Building, a National Historic Landmark, as well as the recently renovated Boylston Street Building (formerly called the Johnson Building), which first opened in 1972 and brought the size of the Central Library to nearly one million square feet of space.
Free, printed copies of the booklet will be offered once the library reopens to general visitation; along with our daily Art & Architecture tours, the piece will be an integral tool in telling the story of the Central Library’s built heritage. In the meantime, we invite patrons near and far to enjoy the virtual edition here with its stunning photography and an online orientation to the many highlighted spaces and services of this this cultural, literary, and historic landmark.
We are grateful to our generous sponsor, Bank of America, for making possible this new exploration of our very own “palace for the people."
