OLD Cincinatti Library (Gone But Not Forgotten)

David Sherman of the West End wants to know what really happened to the old Cincinnati library.
"Well, I've always seen these photos of the Old Main Library on Vine Street, and I wondered what happened to it because it's an immaculate building and the inside was incredibly beautiful," he says.
One of the pictures he's talking about shows tall pillars reaching up to the ceiling over several stories of shelving with elaborate carvings on the ends. There are low railings, and books - lots and lots and lots of books. It looks almost magical. If you added floating candles and a couple of owls, it could be straight out of a Harry Potter movie.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County's current main library at Vine and 8th and 9th Streets is not the first incarnation of the hallowed establishment. It's the third. The first was located on the second floor of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, at 6th and Vine, where the former Terrace Plaza Hotel now stands.
"But when people think of Old Main, they generally think of 629 Vine Street; built as an opera house - never was an opera house - and that was the main library," says Christopher Smith.
Smith is a reference librarian in genealogy and local history. He says without a doubt, Old Main was a beautiful place. But it wasn't very practical. Truman Handy's Opera House company went bankrupt in 1868 before the building was finished, and it was sold to the fledging library.
"And that's why we ended up with those beautiful wrought iron levels," Smith says. "Because those were originally meant to be balconies for a theater. So basically you rip those out and create areas where you can create shelves and shelving, and stacks - stacks as we call it at the library."

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Sorry about the audio. I will try and fix...