OKI Wanna Know: What happened to the old Cincinnati library?

David Sherman of the West End wants to know what really happened to the old Cincinnati library.

"Well, I've always seen these photos of the Old Main library on Vine Street, and I wondered what happened to it, because it's an immaculate building and the inside was incredibly beautiful," he says.

One of the pictures he's talking about shows tall pillars reaching up to the ceiling over several stories of shelving with elaborate carvings on the ends. There are low railings, and books — lots and lots and lots of books. It looks almost magical. If you added floating candles and a couple of owls, it could be straight out of a Harry Potter movie.

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County's current main library at Vine and 8th and 9th streets is not the first incarnation of the hallowed establishment. It's the third. The first was located on the second floor of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, at 6th and Vine, where the former Terrace Plaza Hotel now stands.