“The Naperville Public Library, Part III: The Naper Boulevard Library” by S.M. O’Connor

On December 29, 1992, the Naper Boulevard Library (N.B.L.) opened in southeast Naperville, Illinois, within the large portion of Naperville in Will County, as the first branch of the Naperville Public Library (N.P.L.). It is an example of the Prairie School style of architecture. At first, only the upper floor in the two-story building was open to the public as a library. In its first year, the Naper Boulevard Public Library had acquired 52,113 books, videos, and CDs. The staff answered 36,000 reference questions. Within just three years, the Naper Boulevard Library expanded to the lower level of the building. This is a 32,000 square-foot building, which makes it the smallest of the Naperville Public Library’s three facilities. The $3,000,000 facility was funded through the sale of general obligation bonds and the N.P.L.’s building reserve fund.[1]

Figure 1 Credit: Sean M. O’Connor Caption: This is the Naper Boulevard Library, as seen on Monday, September 17, 2018.

Figure 2 Credit: Sean M. O’Connor Caption: This is the main entrance of the Naper Boulevard Library.

Figure 3 Credit: Sean M. O’Connor Caption: This bronze sculpture, The Grinch, is outside the entrance of the Naper Boulevard Library. It depicts the Grinch in his faux Santa Claus suite, and his dog, Max, disguised as a reindeer from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss, published by Random House in 1957.

In 1995, Roger Pearson, the first Library Director of the Naperville Public Library, stepped down. Donna Dziedzic succeeded him as Library Director in May of 1996. By the time she retired in 2011, her title was Executive Director of the Naperville Public Library.

The Nichols Library, for lack of space, underwent a major renovation in 1996. The administrative offices were relocated from the Nichols Library to the Naper Boulevard Library during this period. As predicted, both libraries, like the geography surrounding them, also began to fill to capacity and struggle with the volume of traffic. These issues led to the foundation of the third library in the system, the 95^th Street Library.

In 2010, Itasca, Illinois-based Williams Architects oversaw renovations of the Naper Boulevard Library and in 2014 renovated and remodeled the building. The renovations in 2009 included a new monument sign, new permeable pavers that would minimize stormwater runoff, and replacement of the original concrete roof tiles with energy-efficient and long-lasting shingles. The renovation and remodeling work in 2014 included renovation of the existent main lobby, the installation of new carpeting and finishes, the installation of improved lighting, modular service desks, new furniture in the Children’s Services and Adult Services, renovated Quiet Study areas, and an updated Teen Space. The total budget for this project was about $900,000.

Since November of 2017, Yan Xu has been Library Manager of the Naper Boulevard Library. She replaced Karen Dunford. [Ms. Dunford became Library Manager of the 95^th Street Library.] Ms. Xu has worked at the N.P.L. since April of 2008. Previously, she served as Adult and Teen Services Supervisor from April of 2011 to October of 2017. She had been Adult Services Librarian from April of 2008 to April of 2011. Beforehand, she had been Adult Services Librarian at the Waukegan Public Library in Waukegan, Illinois from February of 2002 to June of 2007. Ms. Xu earned her B.A. in English Language and Literature at Fudon University in Shanghai, China; a M.S. in Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1999; and a second M.S., in Library and Information Science, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 2011.

The N.B.L. is open from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays year-round (unlike the Nichols Library and the 95^th Street Library, which are open from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sundays September through May and from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays June through August). It is open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays.

The address of the Naper Boulevard Library is 2035 South Naper Boulevard, Naperville, Illinois 60565. The phone number for the Naperville Public Library is (630) 961-4100 and the extension for general information at the N.B.L. is 2212.

ENDNOTE

[1] Ann Piccininni, “A Family Worth celebrating,” Chicago Tribune, 21 September, 1990 (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-09-21-9003190330-story.html) Accessed 10/13/18

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.