St. Louis School Library, 1878

From Camille Dry's Pictorial Guide to St. Louis (1878). Here is a sketch of the St. Louis Public School Library (later, in 1884, the St. Louis Public Library) located in the Polytechnic Building of the St. Louis schools at the corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets.

The library had some 55,000 volumes and various works of art; the main library building was replaced in 1912 with Cass Gilbert's Central Library (now itself the target of a renovation and expansion plan).