. Charles Follen McKim; a study of his life and work. LIBRARY The first great building embodying all the principalqualities of the style with which the work of McKim,Mead, and White will be forever identified is the BoSton Public Library. Scarcely any other public buildingexcept the capitol at Washington is so widely knownby the great mass of the American people, or has beenso extravagantly praised, on the one hand, or so mer^cilessly criticized on the other, as the great palace ofbooks on Copley Square. In 1880 the Board of Trus-tees of the Boston Public Library decided that thebuilding on Bo
. Charles Follen McKim; a study of his life and work. LIBRARY The first great building embodying all the principalqualities of the style with which the work of McKim,Mead, and White will be forever identified is the BoSton Public Library. Scarcely any other public buildingexcept the capitol at Washington is so widely knownby the great mass of the American people, or has beenso extravagantly praised, on the one hand, or so mer^cilessly criticized on the other, as the great palace ofbooks on Copley Square. In 1880 the Board of Trus-tees of the Boston Public Library decided that thebuilding on Boylston Street which had been occupiedsince 1838 was no longer in any way adequate. To en-large it to any extent was impossible, and because ofits crowded situation, the danger from fire was con-stant. The granting by the Commonwealth of Massa-chusetts of a large portion of the present site for thepurpose of a library building stimulated the uptownmovement and the planning of the new structurebegan. Many tentative plans of many architects were con-22. CHARLES POLLEN McKIM unerring raste which never seemed to tail him, selectedSamteGenevieve as being the best type of buildingfor an open situation like Copley Square, an arcadedbuilding with a high basement. Both oi the buildingsunder discussion are that, but beyond that their simi^larity ceases to be much more than that similaritywhich exists between two members of the human raceof the same sex and nationality. The main facade of the Pans building consists ofnineteen arches separated by very slender piers, stand-ing upon a high basement story, which in turn restsdirectly on the ground. Considerably over half of thearcade openings is filled up with masonry. The crown-ing member of the basement story, from which thearcade rises, has a very slight projection and is richlyornamented with a band of festoons. Above the arcadeis a richly carved frieze and shallow cornice crownedwith a low stone parapet, behind which rises the ba
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