Last updated: June 5, 2024
Place
Crane Library
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Built in 1881 by architect Henry Hobson Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the Crane Library was one of several collaborations between the pair. Olmsted’s first task was re-grading the site, making it level with the street to create a flat canvas for the construction of the library. As the landscape architect, it was Olmsted’s job to showcase the red and stone façade of the building, so the planting plan for Crane Library included an open green turf, with scattered shrubbery along the grounds.
An 1883 edition of Harper’s Weekly called the Crane Library, “the best Village library in the United States,”. Olmsted Brothers would get a chance to add to the library grounds when the City of Quincy reached out in 1913, asking them to advise on “the adjustment of the library grounds to the proposed widening”.
Source: "Crane Library," Olmsted Online
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
An 1883 edition of Harper’s Weekly called the Crane Library, “the best Village library in the United States,”. Olmsted Brothers would get a chance to add to the library grounds when the City of Quincy reached out in 1913, asking them to advise on “the adjustment of the library grounds to the proposed widening”.
Source: "Crane Library," Olmsted Online
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr