The McMillan Memorial Library

From the market, Susan took us to the McMillan Memorial Library, the oldest library in Nairobi. It was built by the McMillan family to celebrate the life of William Northrup McMillan, an American-born Kenyan settler, adventurer, and philanthropist, who died in 1925. The building was largely financed by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, close family friends of the McMillans. The library was officially opened on 5 June 1931 by Sir Joseph A. Byrne, Governor of Kenya.

The building is a neo-classical design featuring granite-clad columns along the façade and a grand white marble stairway leading up to the entrance. Two lions statues guard either side of the entrance. The external walls were constructed of smooth rendered stone under a flat roof, and the internal walls are clad in polished timber panels. The windows are glazed in tall steel casements, allowing for ample natural lighting, and the doors are made of heavy hardwood panels hung in timber frames. The floors are finished in parquet. All of this gives an impression of a grand building, if rather faded.

Unbelievably, the McMillan Memorial Library is the only building in Kenya protected by a specific Act of Parliament, passed in 1938, which provided that the library was for the exclusive use of Europeans in addition to the usual conditions for preservation of monuments. Sensibly, when the library was bequeathed to the Nairobi City Council in 1962, it was opened to the general public, regardless of their ethnicity.

The library holds more than 400,000 book, including East African newspapers and periodicals dating back to 1901. It has been home to the proceedings of the Kenyan Parliament since its inception. By my reckoning, none of the books housed in the library are newer than about 1985! I was struck by how many children’s fiction volumes I recognised from my childhood in the seventies! The wooden drawers holding the Dewey Decimal card index system brought back memories of my university days in the eighties. It was like being in a time warp!
Fortunately, the library is being renovated. All of the existing books are being moved downstairs into the cellar. The ground floor is being completely redesigned to house new books, computers, and state of the art research facilities. I hope they don’t lose all of the historic atmosphere, though!Read more