Bromilow Library
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Bromilow Library |
| Bromilow Library
Rolt Heights [84,17]
Basic Info:
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"You are standing outside Bromilow Library, a narrow white-stone building with a curved roof. The building's doors have been left wide open, and you can see that the interior of the building has been ruined." --Horycat 08:59, 10 October 2010 (BST)
You are inside Bromilow Library. The building has been very heavily barricaded.
Bookshelves bar the windows and doors in a complex, geometric truss. The interior is still in good order. The steady glow of powered light fans out from the office doors behind the librarian's desk. Hushed voices drift from the upper level. You quickly explore the library.
On the first floor, a large conference room has been crammed with shelves containing an impressive collection of fiction and literature. It is heavily fortified.
On the second there are couches, tables, and chairs. A few dozen survivors lay about. Most sleep. Three sit together on the floor, passing a bottle and whispering loudly. Two play a game at a table. One is actually reading a book.
Description
Bromilow Library is an old stout brick library located in a dark corner of the suburb of Rolt Heights. The building serves as a stark contrast to the other libraries found in the suburb, all of which were constructed in the last 10 or years and based on ultra-modern designs. In contrast the Bromilow Library's architecture is distinctly gothic and... unearthly. Often a viewer is left wondering whether the various aspects of the library had not in fact once been several different buildings that, through some ungodly method best left untold, were brought together to form the one building.
Bromilow Library was commissioned in 1951 as part of the "Think Science" Project, which also included the Riddell Museum and Fanning Cinema. This would seem to dispel any sinister theories behind the library's origins, and yet it still does not account for the architectural inconsistencies within the building or other intangible aspects of the library.
Bromilow Library was constructed on what had once been Bromilow Farm. The farm stood long abandoned from the twenties due to a famine that struck the area. Later the land was sold to the city. Then, in 1970 it was suddenly included as part of the civic project, mostly at the request of then Rolt Heights Councilman, Ty Miller. The building was completed three years later in 1953. During its construction three workers were killed in separate unexplainable accidents, almost halting the project, but construction was restarted after the city council pressured to close the investigation and resume construction.
When the library finally opened its doors many local citizens had expected it to serve as a standard library, but many were surprised to learn that only a small portion of the library was open to the general public. In fact many of the books purchased at the time, most of which focused on Astronomy and Biology, were kept in an area that was restricted.
Later, a generous budget allowed the library to continue purchasing from a wide selection rare and expensive books from antiquity traders in foreign countries from around the world. In some cases books were secretly purchased from the private collections of older European aristocracy or old lineage families who had fallen on hard times. These old tomes were gathered dutifully by the library’s staff and stored in a vault beneath the library itself. The "book vault" was meant to serve a both a way to protect the rare and expensive volumes from fire, but also from theft. Few patrons though were ever allowed to visit the vault or view any of its books. Truly an odd practice for a place that professed itself to be a library. Even so, the old librarian's insisted, for one reason or another, that certain books were never meant to be read.
Today, much of the main collection is gone. All the science books have been relocated to the Riddell Museum and many of the "non-essential" books have been used as kindling to light fires. However, a nice selection of "worthwhile" material is still available upon request, although the vault remains locked. Survivors who were familiar with the library's history often wonder if the vault is empty or filled with books containing ancient lore. Who can say.
Mandate
None, it's just a library. Go read a book! And preferably not one from the vault's collection...
Barricade Policy
At this time it is unclear as to whether there is a strict suburb-wise barricade policy for this building, but standard barricade policy for unassociated libraries dictates that the building should be Extremely Heavily barricaded at all times.
Current Events
Nothing to report.
