Sunday, August 02, 2009

Goodbye R. L. Christian

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R.L. Christian Library (13th and H) permanently, or at least as far as the current structure is concerned, closed its doors July 30th. It was one of the so called modular libraries. These oddly shaped structures were always intended to be temporary. They are also somewhat portable.

16 comments:

Matthew said...

Chief Librarian at DCPL, Ginnie Cooper, will be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show this Monday at noon.

poo poo pee doo said...

are there plans to do anything with it, or will it just be another vacant property for the next ten years?

Rob said...

According to a flier I received, the Northeast Library at 7th and Maryland will be picking up some of the slack as the little libraries close. I need to check that place out it's so close.

Anonymous said...

Whoever did the flyer must have assumed that the library user was driving. It's more than a 5 minute walk to 7th & Maryland, and you have to cross two busy streets. The library intersection is particularly deadly.

Poopoo said...

Walking is good for you. 5 minutes is nothing, unless u r a bigtime lazy person.

Anonymous said...

the library at 7th and MD, NE is nice, you just have to be prepared to do library transfers for more popular books.....

Anonymous said...

The threshhold for driving is a 5 minute walk? My god.

Anonymous said...

No one said that the threshold for walking is 5 minutes.

The library ads and flyer say that the Northeast Library is 5 minutes away for users of RL Christian and the Benning Library. The RL Christian was used by a lot of kids and seniors Mr.Poo. It's too bad that the only social services that this community gets are basketball courts and half way houses.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7am -- do you have some numbers, or a source, supporting your claim that RL Christian was used by a lot of kids and seniors? Because the District indicated that the reason they were closing it was because no one was using it, and they *did* have numbers (as in, very small numbers) to back it up.

Anonymous said...

Oof, I misread the comment about "more than a 5 minute walk". My mistake, sorry.

- Anon 11:44

Tom A. said...

I always felt bad for those books being baked in the sun in those plexiglass windows. I hope they'll find a shadier home!

Anonymous said...

The low count may have been due to the lack of homeless that populates most of the other libraries.

In any case, not to worry about baking books, the chief librarian does not believe in keeping so many books around.

Anonymous said...

I live close to the RL Christian and never got a chance to use it. It was never open when I wasn't working. They closed at 5:00 on weekdays and weren't open on weekends.

I like the idea of having a small library open near me, I would just like one that is open.

Alan Page said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alan Page said...

i decided to be positive and deleted my semi-hipster sarcastic prior post.

if they're closing that mini-library on benning, that's QUITE a hike to get from there to 7th and Maryland, if by chance you are a studious young tike looking for a local library.

Anonymous said...

For real people?! the library at 7th & Maryland is not that far. Maybe the walk will keep these supposed "studious young tikes" busy for a little while and distract them from mugging people. Besides, I live across the street from the library and I have never once seen anyone (young or old) go in or out of it.