White Vermont marble faces this temple of learning, the main branch of the Detroit Public Library. The main branch of the Detroit Public Library, designed by Cass Gilbert, architect of the U.S. Supreme Court, opened in 1921 in the Italian Renaissance style, part of a grand Cultural Center plan meant to give Detroit the civic dignity of a great world city. Across Woodward stands the Detroit Institute of Arts, the two monumental buildings facing each other like the pillars of a classical forum.
Inside, vaulted ceilings, murals, and great arched windows surround the reading rooms; the building was meant to make any citizen, rich or poor, feel that knowledge belonged to them. The library system it anchors was one of the largest in the country during Detroit's boom years. Walk up the marble steps between the bronze lamps and look at the carved inscriptions across the facade, then across the street to the art museum, and you can feel the ambition of a city that wanted to be measured against Athens and Rome.