The library had been closed for just half an hour when a section of the original ceiling dropped nearly 50 feet into the circulation room, destroying computers, cutting a wooden bookcase in half, and sending a cloud of dust through the room full of rare books and valuable artwork. “Our mysteries got hit. Our magazines got hit. Our books-on-tape got hit. But our priceless objects did not,” said Director Cheryl Helms in the November 21 Providence Journal.
Helms stressed that the library had properly maintained the roof and that there had been no sign of any problems. “There would be no way to see the plaster separating from the boards the way it did. It’s just old and it just gave way,” she said, noting that she would ask the state for help in saving the 250-year-old library. “This is an authentic national treasure. I’ve been saying to people for a number of years that it’s in distress. I’m sorry the validity of my words was proven in this way. It brings me to tears.”
In 1999 the United States Postal Service featured the library on a postal card as part of a historic preservation series.
Posted November 24, 2003.