Los Angeles Public Library

A little boredom and a little bit needing a break from unpacking the apartment (yes we're still unpacking - will it ever end?) Ryan and I decided to break out and explore the Metro rail system. This fabulous little subway is limited as to where it will take you, so it's fairly straightforward, absolutely user friendly and Ryan will be able to use it for school! I only hope that I will be lucky enough to find a sweet job on the rail track so I won't have to sit in traffic getting to and from work everyday.

The Metro rail is a few blocks from us. There were plenty of friendly attendants available to answer our questions about the system. Getting started wasn't as easy as it was on the NYC Metro system, but then again NYC has a massive public transit system and although it's the largest city in the U.S. geographically speaking it's small enough so it's conducive to excellent public transportation via a subway system. NYC may have a more expansive metro rail system, but the ones in Los Angeles were much cleaner and much less crowded. I love NYC. Love, love, love it. So this is no bash to the fabulous East Coast metropolis! This is just my humble opinion.

In any case we decided to take the subway to Pershing Square, which is in downtown Los Angeles. We walked around for a little bit and we didn't walk for too long before Ryan decided we should visit the Los Angeles Public Library.

With the help of GPS and Siri we located it and got right to checking it out (hahaha pun was not intended). Unbeknownst to me Ryan was on a mission to see an old and famous ceiling he had seen on a video game he has since mastered. First we ended up in the newer section of the library that had some pretty neat ceiling fixtures, and we explored the literature and fiction sections on the third floor.

Ceiling fixtures over the escalators

A note on the ceiling fixtures - My picture only depicts one front and center, but there are two others beyond it.

These fixtures are located in a renovated section of the library that fell victim to a fire in 1986. 

The three "chandeliers" were created by Therman Statom. Each chandelier represents a theme- the natural world, the man-made world, and of course the spiritual world.

My beloved Toni Morrison's section shelved in the fiction department. I love her writing so much. What an honor to have one's work available for check out in a public library (sigh and smile). This isn't all of her work though! Perhaps a few of those missing books have been checked out :)

Satisfied after seeing Toni Morrison's collection of fine books, Ryan finally revealed he was looking for this beautiful ceiling he was sure was in an older part of the building. After circling the library a few times and visiting the library gift shop looking for clues on the whereabouts of this ceiling we finally asked an on site police officer (may have been security, but I'm sure it was the police) where this ceiling  was located. Ryan didn't even have to finish his sentence. The officer told us just how to get there and encouraged us to take as many pictures as we wanted to, and that we did.

This fabulous globe weighs one ton and represents the solar system. The globe is surrounded by planets, a crescent moon, and zodiac signs. There are 48 lights surrounding the globe and they represent the 48 United States in existence in 1926 - the year the library was built. 

One of the murals painted by Dean Cornwell (a magazine illustrator). His murals depict four great eras in California history - discovery, mission building, Americanization, and the founding of Los Angeles. These murals were hung in 1933 and the decorative ceilings and walls around the murals were painted on the concrete by Julian Garnsey.









And one last picture of the beautiful ceiling and globe.

After pictures and admiration we headed to a lower level where there was another beautiful ceiling and and two Egyptian Sphinxes.

These sphinxes are said to symbolize the hidden mysteries of knowledge and guard the Statue of Civilization located just behind them. The Statue of Civilization holds a book in her right hand. The book has quotations in five languages. The quote in English is "Beauty is truth - truth beauty."

Both Sphinxes hold open books with inscriptions. The Sphinx at the left of the statue translates to, "I am all that was and is and is to be and no man hath lifted up my veil." The right Sphinx's book translates to, "Therefore the desire of Truth, especially of that which concerns the gods, is itself a yearning after Divinity."

Above these Sphinxes was another beautiful ceiling I could not find any information on, but it was still quite something. It looked as if it were made out of wood. I'll continue to try and find out what this ceiling is all about and if I ever find out I'll let you know :)

And this essentially summed up our first visit to the public library. Quite stunning. It was really exceptional to see such old, historic, beautiful things in a big city where I would have assumed everything was glossy and new.