The Grosse Pointe Public Library Central Branch, located at 10 Kercheval Avenue in

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Grosse Pointe Farms is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,479 at the 2010 census. As part of the Grosse Pointe collection of cities, it is a northeastern city of Metro Detroit and shares a small wester ...

, is one of the buildings of the

Grosse Pointe Public Library Grosse Pointe Public Library is a public library system serving the Grosse Pointe area of Wayne County, Michigan. The Carolyn and Ted Ewald Memorial Branch Library in Grosse Pointe Park was scheduled to open in 2004. The branch was originally s ...

. Constructed in 1953, it is significant as one of the first major public commissions in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

of architect

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...

. The building was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2021.

History

The Grosse Pointe Public Library was established in 1929 by the school district, and spent over two decades moving from space to space. In 1951, it was decided to construct a permanent space for the library, funded in large part by local businessman Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Ferry's son, W. Hawkins Ferry, had studied architecture under

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and the Ferry family had commissioned the architect to design previous projects. The library commissioned Breuer to design the new branch, and Breuer, W. Hawkins Ferry, and library director Robert Orr worked through 1951 and 1952 to refine the design. The library opened to the public in 1953. The building served as the main branch of the Grosse Pointe Library through the rest of the century. In 2007, the library board decided that the building was obsolete, and it should be demolished and replaced with new construction. However, there was both local and international opposition to the decision. That, in conjunction with the 2008 recession, led the board to reconsider, and rehabilitate instead. By 2016, interior renovation to correct some of the building's issues was completed, and it remains in service as a library.

Description

The Central Library is a two-story brick rectangular structure with a flat roof. The building is constructed using a series of reinforced cast concrete frames, with exterior walls of cast-in-place concrete with a masonry veneer. The design stresses the use of the rectangle elements both in the plan and on the façade. On the north façade, is a large floor to ceiling window connecting the courtyard and street to the interior. The large window is divided into offset, vertically oriented rectangles. The main entrance is through a recessed rectangle containing metal-framed glass doors.

References

External links

Grosse Pointe Public Library Central Branch
{{National Register of Historic Places listings in Wayne County, Michigan Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Libraries in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Michigan