The Page Memorial Library is home not to stacks of books, but to the Sand Springs Cultural & Historical Museum. The museum itself, which features permanent and temporary collections like Unseen India: Bernie Guzik’s Collection of Aluminum and rotating displays from the Tulsa Antique and Bottle Club, is a true work of art, too.

Though the Sand Springs Cultural & Historical Museum is currently temporarily closed, Sandites can still drive by or park their cars and wander the grounds to observe this masterpiece right in the middle of downtown Sand Springs.

The Page Memorial Library was a gift dedicated by Mrs. Lucile Page in honor of her husband, businessman and philanthropist Charles Page. Constructed in 1930 under the guidance of architect Otis Floyd Johnson of the Lorado-Taft Studios in Chicago, the library cost around $100,000 (adjusted for inflation, that’s around $1.5 million dollars today) to build and furnish with a collection.

Outside, the flat-roofed building features painted-white stucco exterior, bronze doors, and a bronze multi-paned memorial window. The entrance, which features ornamented pilasters, is accessible by a wide 18-step staircase and boasts two chevron motifs creating a stylized shield. Flanked on the exterior wall is a bronze memorial plate made by Ralph Watkins of Chicago.

With interior walls made with haydite blocks, the entrance is made with St. Genevieve Italian marble while the lobby floors are made of Tennessee pink marble. The interior is bedecked with bronze lamps and lighting fixtures made by the Empire Chandelier Company in Sand Springs.

In 1999, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service.

While the library and museum may be temporarily closed to the public, you can still view this stunning work of art from your car or on foot. If you have children at home, bring them with you and then ask them to draw, paint, or sketch what they saw.