This weekend I visited the Lilly Library in the Florence section of Northampton for the first time in about two years.
What on Earth? This sign was on both the front and inside door.
Of course I ignored it, as did the majority of other library patrons. Of the eleven other people I encountered in the library, six were maskless.
On the second floor there is this shrine to Alfred T. Lilly, the local capitalist who paid for and donated the library to Northampton.
According to the library website:
In 1888, Alfred T. Lilly formed a Library Association along with nine of his friends. He deeded to the Association a piece of land in the center of Florence; Lilly also donated $5,000 for books and $12,500 to build the two-story stone-and-brick building modeled in the Richardson Romanesque style. Construction began in 1889, and library opened, with more than 5,000 books on its shelves, on May 7, 1890.
Unfortunately, Alfred Lilly died on January 2, 1890, before seeing his project completed.
A number of libraries throughout our Valley have been gifts to the community from great capitalists, with no gift more majestic than Andrew Carnegie's to the city of Springfield.
Springfield has also been the recipient of capitalist benefactor Everett Barney, who donated most of the land for what is now Forest Park. Here is a gnarly beech near the park's rose garden last week.
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| photo by jeff ziff |
Meanwhile, spring has sprung at The Fort/Student Prince in downtown Springfield.
I took this picture in Holyoke the other day.
Learn about kings at the UMass History Club. .
Northampton street folk.
Prices in Western Mass are not this high, but we're headed there.
2 comments:
it wasn't that long ago under a different president gas was about 1.78 / gallon and there were no shortages.
$5.06 gas in hadley now ;)
And yet the lemmings will vote Warren et al. back in this November
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