The story of Taylor Memorial Library is a love story. In 1962, Fred Taylor donated his 1921 family home to the Scarborough Public Library Board as a memorial to his first wife, Florence Nightengale Taylor. After twenty-two years as a library, the house near Kingston and Warden was demolished and the current building opened in 1985 on the same site.
When I visited Taylor Memorial for the second time in 2011, I realized that I had previously overlooked a black and white photograph of Florence Taylor in a long formal gown. A lovely flowering vine curled around her photo on the white mat between the picture and the frame. To the right of Florence’s tribute were photographs of Fred Taylor and his second wife, Kate.
I was sorry that the original Taylor house no longer remained because I would like to have seen it. The next best thing was a painting of the 1921 home which hung above the east side of the fireplace. The artist, Nikita Marner, presented the viewer with a tall fairy-tale cottage distinguished by a timbered exterior.
Befitting a library whose origins were rooted in an actual house, the current Taylor Memorial building struck me as more home-like than many of the other TPL branches. As I took in the library’s interior, I was impressed by how faithfully it upheld the spirit of the Taylor’s gift: a home to serve as a sanctuary for quiet reading and reflection.
I hope Fred and Kate would have been pleased that I found Taylor Memorial to be the least institutional of all the seventy-four branches I had visited before I encountered it. Each piece of furniture was just right for settling down for a good long read, including the lawn chairs on the covered patio by the garden, the armchairs near the fireplace, and the semi-circular cushioned window seat in front of a bay window.
Three elegant paintings of the Scarborough Bluffs (one of the original cliffs in Yorkshire and the others of the local Ontario version) also made the interior space feel more domestic. They served as reminders of the real lake that beckoned in a sparkly manner just a few miles away.
On the south wall, an arched stained glass window lent a sacred element to the relaxing atmosphere. Echoing the floral embellishments on Florence Taylor’s photo, translucent butterflies and a few birds fluttered attendance on a flowering vine that filled most of the window.
With its high windows, refined paintings, garden views, and comfortable surfaces, Taylor Memorial branch invited peace into the soul. If you are a visionary or just someone who loves to read in a state of restful abandon, I highly recommend a pilgrimage to this harmonious library. Taylor Memorial’s reader-friendly aesthetic embodies the loving spirit of its benefactors, Fred and Kate Taylor.
