You’ve made it to the imposing front steps of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library-or, as the locals like to call it, the CHPL, pronounced “chipple.” Get ready: this place contains more stories than a broken printer on deadline. Take a moment and look up at the massive building before you. Now, imagine you’re standing in front of the city's very own “brain vault” where, at last count, a whopping 9.6 million volumes are stored. If you think that sounds like a lot, it’s the second-largest public library collection in the country and the 13th largest overall. That’s right-somewhere inside is probably the answer to every trivia night question for the next century!
Let’s time travel back to the beginning. Picture Cincinnati in 1802, when folks first got together to share books-imagine the scene: candlelight flickering, a few leather-bound tomes, and probably someone loudly shushing the noisy horses outside. By 1853, it officially became the Cincinnati Public Library. Fast forward a bit and, in 1870, it moved into a grand building on Vine Street, with checkered marble floors, cast iron alcoves, dazzling skylights, and spiral staircases rising up like something from a Victorian mystery. Pass by the stone heads of Shakespeare, Milton, and Franklin, and you practically expected to bump into Sherlock Holmes searching for overdue books.
It was one of the first libraries in America bold enough to open its doors on Sundays. At a time when “Sunday” meant, well, rest for everyone else, throngs of young men filled the reading rooms from 8 am to 10 pm. The seats were always packed and the air thick with the sweet smell of old parchment and new ideas. New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis saw what Cincinnati was doing and quickly followed suit. Who knew the Queen City was such a trendsetter?
Of course, as the decades rolled on, those endless stacks and spiral staircases weren’t enough. By the 1920s, books were everywhere-even stuffed into windowless basement corners, desperately trying to escape floods and peeling paint. Imagine the suspense: could the library hold out long enough for a new building? After a dramatic series of legal battles, financial headaches, and the kind of arguing Cincinnati is famous for, the new Main Library on Eighth and Vine opened its doors in 1955. The old place was demolished, but some of its most beloved bits-like the busts of literary heroes-were saved and are now nestled peacefully in the library’s gardens, keeping an eye on all the curious visitors.
Inside the Main Library today, you’ll find a dizzying array of treasures. Not only are there books-millions of them-but also audiobooks, digital materials, movies, newspapers, and even sheet music. If you want to 3D print a keychain, stitch up some new duds, record a hit single or laser engrave a gift, the CHPL’s MakerSpace is your Willy Wonka factory. And for the genealogy sleuths out there, this place guards one of the largest family history collections in the nation. Fancy finding out if you’re related to a Cincinnati chili legend? This is the spot.
With an annual circulation of over 21 million items and more than 5 million visitors in 2019, the library is a hive of activity-and with almost 17,000 free programs each year, there’s always something going on. They even loan out Wi-Fi hotspots for home use, just in case you want to read War and Peace without ever leaving your couch. And if you can’t make it inside, they’ll send books to your door, offer passport help, or help you study for your GED.
Since 2013, CHPL has held Library Journal’s coveted five-star rating, and in 2020, was rated second in the country for libraries with huge budgets. Maybe they hand out gold medals for reading, too-I’d hate to see the trophy shelf. The library continues to change with the times, updating its website, redesigning logos, and digitizing rare books and the Cincinnati Enquirer’s photo archive. Each time the city has faced a challenge-budget cuts, floods, new technology-the CHPL has adapted, innovated, and called out “Shhh!” just as loudly as ever.
Today, as you stand here, you’re next to over half a million square feet of curiosity, memory, and discovery. If these walls could talk, they’d probably quote Shakespeare-and if not, they’d happily loan you the book. Now, should we go inside and find out if the Dewey Decimal System still works, or move along to our next stop?
