One of the coolest libraries I’ve ever been to was in Provincetown, MA. I was on vacation with my family in Cape Cod last year, and we decided to check out the town’s library. First of all, it used to be a church, so it is not your usual library. But its most characteristic feature is that there is a boat inside the main room. Yes, a half-scale model of the Rose Dorothea schooner, 66.6 feet long and 12.6 feet high. The boat was delivered in parts, and it took 11 years to build, from 1977 to 1988. This was done as a tribute to the fishermen in Provincetown and to the New-England ship-building industry. The real full-size Rose Dorothea participated in several races and won the Lipton Cup in 1907 for Provincetown.
After admiring the boat, I selected a book from the shelves and went to the second floor. I sat on a comfortable chair facing a window. The view was magnificent: I could see most of Provincetown Harbor, the sky was a deep blue and the ocean was calm. All I needed was right there: my husband and daughter close by in the kid’s section, a multitude of books around me and a beautiful scenery in front of me. I could have spent the rest of the summer there, or the rest of my life for that matter…
Have you ever been to an unusual library?
