Page 41 - A_View_Of_Their_Own_the_Story_of_Westmount

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Restoring 'Findlay'
57 Wall stencil in the Westmount Room incorporates sayings.
The columns were originally decorated using
scagliola, a synthetic marble mixture of plaster of
Paris, glue and various fillers, now a lost art locally.
The marbleizing creates a virtually identical effect
using paint.
The atmosphere in both the north and south
reading rooms results in part from the furnishings.
Leather club chairs, some in oxblood (deep red),
others in dark green, fit into the bay windows with
lamp tables. Larger oak reading tables designed by
Peter Rose have bronze lamps with double shades of
green glass. They are also outfitted with plugs for
laptop computers. The same original-style oak
chairs, called Bank of England or Courthouse
chairs, come from Krug, of Waterloo, Ontario. All
96 have leather seats in either deep red or green.
The old radiators, restored and bronzed, are
back in place while oak bookcases at right angles to
the walls provide little reading nooks. Bronze
chandeliers hang from the ceiling coffers. Each has
four lights covered by glass, tulip-shaped shades.
"I think they're very delicate," the mayor says.
"We agonized over, the chandeliers for a year." How
low would they hang? How many lights would they
have? And would they have bare bulbs or shades?
They were selected with input from lighting consul-
tant George Sexton.
The mood becomes more residential as one
passes through double glass doors into the West-
mount Room, the separate children's pavilion of
1911. "This room is more domestic in scale follow-
ing its original use," Julia Gersovitz says. Here are
the built-in window seats, cushions and the crack-
ling sounds from a woodburning fireplace. An Arts
and Crafts style of wallpaper in a grey green and
ochre is reminiscent of the bygone era. Called Sweet
Briar, "the wallpaper is actually a reproduction of a
C.F.A. Voysey floral pattern." Voysey was a British
architect and contemporary of Findlay.
A band of English and French sayings is painted
in gold around the room in late Victorian fashion.
It's an innovation to reflect the bilingual nature of
today's library collection. Inspiration for the border
comes from the quotation over the fireplace.
Three larger chandeliers of similar style to those
in the reading rooms now hang from the coffered
ceiling that was previously covered by acoustic tile
after the room's subdivision into office space and a
corridor during the modifications of 1959.
A central oak table for use at meetings is
composed of various sections totalling 16 feet in
length. The sections form separate reading tables for
daily use. Another Gersovitz Moss design is a large
buffet-like cupboard on the north wall for storage of
projector equipment as well as cups and saucers
and other meeting materials.
Central to the restoration is the fireplace,
painted over and hidden in a hallway when the
room was divided up. Restored to its original bare
brick, it has been fitted with a prefabricated wood-
burning unit and can now be used. Paint-stripping
efforts, however, damaged some of the brick,
prompting further restoration work. A sandstone
plaque above painted tiles on the front carries the
inscription: "There's no frigate like a book to bear
us leagues away." It's based on an Emily Dickinson
poem, number 1263: "There is no frigate like a
book to take us lands away."
"1 literally remember looking at the little tiles
with the bunnykins over the fireplace," recalls
Councillor Karin Marks of her childhood.
"The restoration is definitely the highlight of
the renewal project."
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