5 Traveler Resources in South Side That You Shouldn't Miss

Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States

The T.B. Blackstone Memorial Library on Chicago's South Side, also known as Blackstone Library and Blackstone Branch and just plain Blackstone, has historical and architectural significance. Built in 1902-1904, it was the first dedicated branch in the Chicago Library System and the only branch in the 79-branch system that was constructed using private funding. It was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2010. Located at 4904 South Lake Park Avenue, in the Kenwood community, the library was dedicated to the memory of Timothy Beach Blackstone, president of the Chicago and Alton Railroad from 1864 to 1899 and founding president of the Chicago Stock Yards, who owned the property on which the Blackstone Library now stands. The building was designed by architect Solon S. Beman and modeled after Beman's Merchant Tailors Building, the domed temple facing the lagoon in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the Erechtheum at the Athenian Acropolis. The building features a Tiffany style dome, marble column and walls in the rotunda and foyer, four overhead rotunda murals painted by Oliver Dennett Grover, a mural painter for the World's Columbian Exposition, square Italian marble mosaic flooring, a glass-floor mezzanine, 2,800-pound bronze plate, solid copper core outer front doors, 2,150-pound bronze and glass inner doors, 12-inch-thick granite walls and ionic columns. The interior is just as lavish with bronze and mahogany furnishings, matching built-in shelving and custom-made bronze lamps. Like all branches, the Blackstone Library provides both free wi-fi access and free terminals with both internet access and printing facilties.