TIL the public library has a whole room for local history I never noticed

I stopped by the main branch downtown last Tuesday to pick up a hold and got distracted by a sign pointing to the basement. There's this cramped room down there with old newspapers from the 1920s, city directories, and even a map showing where the trolley lines used to run. I spent almost two hours just flipping through a 1954 phone book, finding names of streets that don't exist anymore. It made me wonder if anyone else has stumbled on a hidden archive like this in their own town that changed how they see the place.

3 comments

3 Comments

vera_johnson921d ago

I mean, I get it at first glance but honestly who has time to dig through old phone books and maps? It's kind of a waste when you could just Google stuff like that in two seconds, and those dusty rooms just collect mold anyway. I'd rather just look up the street name online if I cared that much.

wendy13121d ago

My friend tried that and got the wrong house twice.

vera_robinson3621d ago

Old maps and phone books just prove people love making simple things way harder than they need to be, @wendy131.