Boston Stone Restoration was contracted by the Boston Public Library to restore the marble floors of the historic George Washington Reading Room and the Map Room Café which are most commonly used for the elegant weddings and other functions held at the library. The floors which consist of Rojo Alicante, White Carerra, and Crema Marfil marble, were badly scratched and their luster had been lost from years of traffic in both spaces.
Taking seriously the impact our work would have on a place with such historic impact (listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark) BSR carefully planned the project with the library. We honed the stone surfaces, then polished the floors up to a high shine. Subsequently we were also contracted to restore the Northwest Corridor which attaches the McKim building to the newer Johnson Building. The Boston Public Library was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States established in 1848 and was designed by Charles McKim in 1887 and built in the Renaissance style of architecture in 1895. Located in Boston’s Back Bay on Boylston Street, the library has recently become a popular destination for weddings and other social events. Notably, the Boston Athenæum, located nearby, is another historic Boston library and one of the oldest independent libraries in the U.S. est. 1807.