Pennsylvania Tour
B.F. Jones Memorial Library
663 Franklin Avenue
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania 15001
(724) 375-2900
bfjones@shrsys.hslc.org
(Approximately 20 miles NW of Pittsburgh)
Friends of Oscar Bach wish to express their deepest thanks to Library Director, Mary Elizabeth Colombo for her gracious assistance in providing us with the following information.
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Founded in 1926, the B.F. Jones Memorial Library was presented on February 1, 1929 to the people of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania by Mrs. Elisabeth M. Horne, the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Jones. The building stands as a tribute to her father, who was one of the controlling partners of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. Established to serve the emerging, multi-cultural community of Woodlawn, the Library continues its service to the greater Aliquippa area, which remains a diverse socio-economic community. Because of its outstanding architecture and design work, the B.F. Jones Memorial Library is listed in the Pennsylvania Inventory of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by architect, Brandon Smith of Bartholomew & Smith, Pittsburgh, the building contains ornamentation by some of the finest craftsmen of the period, among them Oscar Bach, Henry Hunt, and Robert Aiken. |
Scroll down to view details of two screens separating the lobby from the Reference and Reading rooms designed and executed in iron and bronze. Bach wrote of the commission, "I have in mind to incorporate in one screen six symbolic medallions pertaining to the steel industry and, on the screen to the children's room, six medallions representing child life in all its forms."
