Where in the World are you Reading? - Library

Unfortunately it was raining when I took this picture and I didn't want the camera to get any wetter than it had to. This means that I cut off the 'I'. So, welcome to the Izaak Walton Killam Memory Library. You might recognize the name or maybe the acronym 'IWK'. It is the big hospital for children in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Same person.

Brief history lesson: Izaak Walton Killam was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on July 23, 1885. He was a philanthropist after making a successful income in business. He had no children with his wife, so he used his money for the good of other children. There is the Killam Trusts which is used fund scientific research and artistic ventures across Canada. When his wife died she left a large amount of money to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There is also the IWK, like I mentioned, and the Montreal Neurological Institute. His inheritance taxes were used to help fund the Canada Council for the Arts. He died on August 5, 1955 at the age of 70 in Quebec.

The library is named after him and it is a beautiful building. It was funded by his sisters: Miss Constance Killam and Mrs. Elizabeth Rodgers.

This is supposed to be of the books but someone is more interested in the ceiling... 

From the website:

The final plans for the building were drawn in 1962 by J. Phillip Dumaresq & Associates of Halifax and called for a one storey, brick veneer building with full length windows on portions of the east and south sides. The main floor of the Library was to be 109 feet wide by 50 feet deep and contain the main book stacks and reception area. Attached to the south end of this, out in front, was an area thirty three feet by twenty feet to contain a small kitchen and meeting room. To the rear of the large main section was an area forty five feet by twenty five feet for the administration offices and a staff lounge. The basement areas were the same size with the large area being used for storage, arts and crafts and story telling.

The library opened in June of 1963 and had as its keynote speaker Premier Robert Stanfield. (The guy that the Halifax International Airport is named after.)

Also from the website:

Situated behind the Library building is the Memorial Wall, landscaped with shrubs and flowers in summer, first erected in part by the Rotary Club of Yarmouth in 1923 and completed in 1973. It lists all the known graves of the old town cemetery. A triangular, level addition contains the remnants of all stones with any visible printing on them.

The rain kind of prevented any pictures of that...

The Caie Fountain

And lastly, from the website:

In 1991, an addition was built to accommodate the expanding needs of the Western Counties Regional Library. There is a centre courtyard containing the Caie Fountain. Cast in iron in 1876, it was built by the J.W. Fiske Company of New York City for Mr. and Mrs. Robert Caie for their new home on Vancouver Street, and was later donated to the library. It has an eight foot diameter base encrusted with frogs and turtles. The center column is topped with a smaller bowl which is held up with three recumbent bitterns, their beaks in a downward position. The thrust of the water display is through an upright bittern with its beak in a raised vertical position, wings outstretched. The courtyard is landscaped with flowers in summer and contains a Japanese Maple Tree dedicated to the memory of Frances Goudey, long time Trustee and Secretary to the Board. The Reading Room or Reference Room as it is now called was added later as a memorial to benefactors Miss Constance Killam and Mrs. Elizabeth Rodgers.

 The part of the library I spent my time in, though, was the children's section. I only really used this library as a child. And that is where my best memories lie:

The best thing of all is that the library has a 360 tour of many of the rooms and the the outside grounds! You can even look at the ceiling if you so choose.

Some other pictures:

Adult Section

Found in the Research Room

Found in the Research Room

Another view of the outside.

Posts at the entrance.

Close up of one of the posts.

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