On the fourth floor of the Robbins Library, my friend and I stood at the edge of a circular balcony, looking down at the golden-hued chandelier that hangs above the marbled first floor and then up at the sparkling dome skylight above us. “It’s like the Boston Public Library,” I began, “but more…”
“Cozy,” my friend finished.
And that’s exactly it. If one wants the sprawling Renaissance architecture and elegant study spaces of the Boston Public Library without having to brave the long journey on the Green Line, they can head over to Winthrop Street, hop on the 80 bus and ride the 10 minutes over to Robbins Library.
Located in Arlington, a town bordering Medford, Robbins Library somehow manages to fuse quaintness with grandeur. The first floor’s main sitting room is the centerpiece of the library. The few shelves of books in the middle of the room are only an accessory to its overall splendor. Vintage, floral-patterned, wingback chairs cluster around a magnificent, intricately-carved wooden fireplace, which rests atop a marble mosaic floor. Tall wooden arch windows line the walls, leading up to a beautiful, color-infused gold-leaf-accentuated ceiling. Aside from the modern books and magazines displayed in the center of the room, stepping into this space makes me feel as if I’ve traveled to a different time period entirely.
Beyond the sitting room, the first floor also contains a multimedia section offering a sizable supply of movies, shows and audiobooks, and a wide, expansive room dedicated entirely to fiction. Off to the side sits a shelf filled with board games and jigsaws with a sign advertising “Take a Puzzle, Leave a Puzzle.”
The second floor is a quiet space — bound by low ceilings and wooden desks along the walls — ideal for more dire study sessions that require complete focus. It also has art prints which you can check out for a six-week period, perfect for impressing a visitor you’re showing your dorm off to.
On the third floor, there are tables for group studying and two study rooms at the base of a small set of stairs that allow you to feel as if you’re closed off from the rest of the floor entirely.
The fourth floor houses the book sale room, where all books are on sale for $2 and all multimedia for $1. And finally, at the very center of this floor is a rotunda, the middle of which is carved out to provide a view of all the floors below. Directly above it, a glistening chandelier hangs from a skylight surrounded by a golden dome.
However, despite all of the gorgeous architecture, what strikes me most about Robbins Library is all of its community events and initiatives. Pasted across the library’s walls are dozens of flyers advertising events such as open mic nights, yoga classes and game nights, in addition to a litany of book clubs, from Revolutionary Readers to Speculative Fiction to Black Intellectuals. Robbins Library truly feels like it was crafted with community in mind.
So, the next time you’ve got a cram session coming up and want to escape the walls of Tisch, check out Robbins Library. Take a book, leave a puzzle or just sit in its beautiful space and feel as if you’ve traveled to a different time.
