T

HE new main building of The Free Library of Philadelphia, designed by Horace Trumbauer after the classically conceived Ministry of Marine in Paris, has a simplicity and a dignity which would easily give it rank among the notable public buildings of the largest American cities even if it stood alone. But the Library has been given a setting appropriate to its massive proportions. It is situated halfway between the City Hall and the magnificent new Art Museum, on the Parkway-the wide diagonal thoroughfare that has been created through the demolition of hundreds of old bulidings in the process of Philadelphia's correction of William Penn's gridiron plan. In the further development of the Parkway, the Library will have as neighbors the new million-dollar home of the Franklin Institute, the American Philosophical Society's headquarters, and the Mastbaum Memorial Rodin Museum.

The main entrance facing the Parkway has three great doorways reached by a broad flight of steps and a portico with twelve colossal columns. The pediments are decorated with symbolic figures representing Writing and Printing. The view south and east from the portico includes the dignified dome of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the white tower of the Elverson Building, the City Hall tower surmounted by the figure of William Penn, the Masonic Temple and the impressive bulk of the Academy of Natural Sciences.

The building completely equipped will represent a total cost of between six and seven million dollars. It is 300 feet long and 200 feet deep, with granite base and Indiana limestone walls. It is well lighted, well ventilated, and completely fireproof, with a capacity of 1,500,000 books besides numerous special collections. There is a stack capacity of 1,000,000 volumes; and, in addition to the most modern equipment and facilities for readers' convenience and comfort, the Library contains club rooms, a map room, a print room, and a manuscript room. The third floor is devoted to exhibition rooms for rare books and prints, and an innovation has been introduced in the form of an open-air reading-room on the roof. Another innovation is a sound-proof room with pianos, enabling the students to run through scores before taking them from the building.

This new edifice is regarded as the climax of library achievement in Philadelphia, which has one of the largest and most important free library systems in the country housed in thirty separate buildings. There are 185 libraries in the city and its immediate vicinity and, as is appropriate to the city boasting the oldest library in the country, the number constantly increases. It is fitting that the beautiful new building should occupy so advantageous a position on the Parkway and in the very heart of the section which, according to the city plans, is to be Philadelphia's cultural center.