LACONIA Public Library in Laconia, New Hampshire is housed in one the many beautiful American public library buildings built in the 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time when the acts of thinking and reading were still considered inherently ennobling. The building, so different from the functional and non-ornamental modern library, speaks of its lofty purpose. This is democracy offset by aristocratic principles. The building is open to all and yet does not pander to the masses.

Here a blogger reminisces about childhood days spent in the library.

 It was less than 100 years old when I was little but it looked like an old fairy castle, and it felt magical, with its spires and turrets.  Opening the front doors led you to the main reading room, where old men sat with their papers.  The librarian there smiled at us as we passed her on our way to the children’s room. 

[…]

On the way home, our car could have passed by an entire road-side circus and we wouldn’t have noticed; our minds were already too far away, engrossed in whatever we were reading.  The car was absolutely silent, like its own library.

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know that library.  I grew up there. And even though I live in New York City, with its gorgeous Beaux-Arts library and its huge central Brooklyn library, none of that can ever top my memories of the Laconia Public Library, the most beautiful and magical library ever made.

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