#branch libraries

View of the Redford Branch Library, Detroit Public Library. Typed on back: "Detroit Public Library, Redford Branch, exterior." Handwritten on back: "Redford Branch, 1926-1980 building. Exterior view, W. McNichols at Grand River, original branch. Built as Redford Town Hall. Construction finished in 1926 as a Detroit branch library when the east section of Redford Township was annexed by Detroit, 1925. Photo taken 1926."

Seven Corners Library “Nonsense Books”

There was a nice library stood

On a corner where it showed up good

And where grew a tree

Tall and green for to see

Which we loved just as much as we could

In the 1910s, Seven Corners Library decided to have a little fun. Library staff (and perhaps the patrons) crafted two “Nonsense Books” full of short, rhyming poems joking about themselves and their library. The first edition of the nonsense book is mainly inside jokes about people at the library. The second booklet, which includes the poems above, reflects on the library building and community. None of the poems are signed, so it’s impossible to say who crafted their quips. The pencil edits on some of the pages, however, suggest that the books were a group effort. Poems in the second nonsense book mention everything from the lawn, to the bookshelves, to the recent street paving in an ode to the library.

Seven Corners Library was founded in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1905. The library served a booming immigrant community, including in the Bohemian Flats area. First located in a rented spot in Riverside Church, the library’s permanent building at 300 15th Ave. S opened in 1912. The library served as a community center for local readers and children, who gathered in large numbers at the branch. While the Seven Corners Library thrived for decades, its use declined in the mid-twentieth century as immigration slowed and the neighborhood changed. In 1964, the Seven Corners Library closed. The building was demolished to make way for highway expansion.

Summer has slipped away.
   

BRANCH LIBRARY

I wish I could find that skinny, long-beaked boy who perched in the branches of the old branch library. He spent the Sabbath flying between the wobbly stacks and the flimsy wooden tables on the second floor,   pecking at nuts, nesting in broken spines, scratching notes under his own corner patch of sky. I'd give anything to find that birdy boy again bursting out into the dusky blue afternoon with his satchel of scrawls and scribbles, radiating heat, singing with joy.

View of men and women reading at Jefferson Branch Library, Detroit Public Library. Room is furnished with tables and chairs; bookshelves in background. Label on back: "Interiors: Thomas Jefferson Branch Library, 12350 E. Outer Drive. Opened, October 1, 1951." Handwritten on back: "Jefferson Branch. Building, interior view, adult reading area. Photo taken in 1955."