The Cleveland Public Library main building (the Walker & Weeks-designed Main Library, completed in 1925) is one of the finest Beaux-Arts public libraries in the United States, with a marble vestibule, a coffered ceiling in the main reading room, and a Special Collections department holding the largest chess collection in the world (the John G. White Chess Collection — over 32,000 items).
The library reading room is open to all and offers free internet, daily papers, and the kind of unhurried quiet that defined civic library culture before the screens arrived. The Louis Stokes Wing, a modern annex, contains the science and government documents departments and the Eastman Reading Garden — a small outdoor courtyard between the two buildings, with sculptures and benches.
Open every day except Sunday; admission free.