Editor's note: Hi! Today's story is a fun one that answers a question probably all of you have had at one point or another. This story was written by Amanda Patchin and the lovely photos are by Ted Harmon. Enjoy! -Marissa

Most towns have a public library. These are likely to be a bit taken for granted by the populace. They are so common as to be unremarkable. However, the history of public libraries in America is a rich exploration of democratic ideals and philanthropy. Like in England, our first form of public libraries were so-called “Subscription Libraries”. These worked by sharing the cost of books among a large group of subscribers who then exchanged a book or two at a time to always have fresh reading material. In a subscription library, most books were in readers’ hands most of the time, and, very often, a reader would only have one volume of a multi-volume work (in the 18th and 19th centuries most novels were published in three separate parts for ease of sharing among a family or a subscription library).

The first public library in America was founded by Benjamin Franklin and he, along with the residents of Franklin, Massachusetts agreed to make all the books freely available to citizens of the township. While public libraries multiplied and expanded across the U.S in the 100+ years after Franklin’s first founding, it wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th century that they really took off.

Andrew Carnegie established approximately half of the 3500 libraries that existed in the U.S. by the year 1920. In 1904, the Boise Public Library (which had also started as a subscription library) won a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to build a library. The building, which still sits on Washington St. between 8th and 9th, was designed by Tourtelotte and Co, the same architects who designed St. John’s Cathedral and Garfield Elementary, not to mention the Egyptian Theater and the Administration Building at BSU (then Boise Junior College). This lovely building held the library until 1974 when it needed more space and so moved to the former hardware building on its current location.

Now, of course, the Boise Public Library has many locations. Smaller buildings scattered around the valley house books, computers, and programs. But the largest branch is the big brick building downtown. And this branch of the Boise Public Library has a famous sign.

The “LIBRARY!” sits on the corner of Capitol and River nestled alongside the Cabin Literary Center and the Boise River. In print and in person, people will question: “Just why is Boise so excited about its Library?”

The story of that exclamation point is one about beer, pizza, the poetry of Rumi, and one man’s delight in the excellence of a thing.

Howard Olivier was one of the original owners of Boise’s Flying Pie Pizzeria. In addition to the delights of “It’s Your Day” (when customers could make their own pizza for free if it was the day their name was chosen) and double-habanero pizzas, Flying Pie has been an integral part of the community.

I spoke to Howard after he finished up a Monday afternoon bike ride. He was happy to share the story of the Library(!) sign.

As a frequent library visitor, Howard found the library itself and the librarians to be paragons of excellence. And yet, the sign on the building was nothing but the word “library” in a simple font. How could such a wonderful place, such an incredible staff and environment be represented by the mere word “Library”? There was something more going on than could be represented by the flatness of a single unpunctuated word. Signs and symbols should match up to reality.

In 1995, Howard walked into the Boise Library and asked to speak to the head librarian, Ann Abrams. He asked for permission to buy and install a couple of exclamation points to emphasize the excellence of the place. Committees met, decisions were made, and Howard Olivier was granted the right to point out how wonderful a place this was. He told me “I knew Flying Pie could pay for this!” and it did. At a mere $500 per exclamation point (plus an additional $500 for installation) it was a relatively inexpensive moment to make a big statement.

The sign immediately garnered attention. On the day of the installation CNN provided news coverage. Howard is still amused by the publicity, both for the library and for the sign company that did the work. The company that had installed the original letters declined to do the exclamation points, excusing themselves because it was such a small job and not worth their time. YESCO (Young Electric Sign Company) accepted the contract and it was their trucks that ended up on the national news hoisting the punctuation into the air.

It seems to me that Howard Olivier’s delight in the excellence of the library is of one piece with his love excellence in pizza and in beer. Ever since he had opened Flying Pie, customers had told him that he should have his own house beer. “Sure” he’d reply “what kind?” And no one had any suggestions until one customer (may his name be ever-blessed!) who suggested a Belgian style Tripel. “That,” Howard says, “was actionable.”

He and his co-owner went to Sockeye Brewing and, sitting on the brewery floor, they arranged eight beers in a circle. Stronger than this one, a little less fizzy than that one, less bitter than this, a bit darker than that. Their beer was the imaginary one in the center of the circle. Sockeye assured them they could do it and the Triple Pi Ale was born. Strong and pale as Belgian Tripels are meant to be, Triple Pi is rich and flavorful, the perfect exclamation point after a spicy slice of rich and chewy pizza.

Howard enjoys sharing his love of well-crafted, well-planned, excellent things. Pizza and beer were great for a while, but eventually he was ready to move on and so he sold Flying Pie in 2011 and did some consulting work. When I asked him about his love of excellence, Howard thought for a moment and then acknowledged that he might be characterized by a love of good things shared widely although he hadn’t thought of it that way before. He has spent much of his life pursuing the things that seemed interesting and worthwhile to him, wanting to cultivate them, and wanting to share them with his community.

Most recently, he started a reading group back at the Boise Public Library. Howard became enamored of the poetry of Rumi after being introduced to his works by an Iranian immigrant who worked at the library. A Persian Sufi poet and spiritual mystic, Rumi lived in the 13th century. His work remains extremely popular both in its original Persian, Arabic and Greek and in translation.

Delighted with his poems, Howard and the Library! started a “Rumi Night” which still runs three times a year. Of course, in the last two years the events have been held online, however, before the shutdown they were attended by 60 to 100 people including a significant portion of Boise’s Iranian population. The joy of these events, for Howard, is in the opportunity to introduce people to a wonderful poet.

The exclamation point on the library is an important part of what makes Boise, well, Boise. It’s not that all libraries should have more exciting signs, or even that the Library! is always worthy of its sign. Our library is like most public libraries – shelves of books, some good some bad, movies and video games, lots of computers, a few programs, and staff that has good days and bad.

Maybe, the personal reality of Howard and his unique aesthetic sense, his distinctive desires and tastes, his ability to see the potential in people and institutions, have given our community just a little bit more of a sense of place. Howard has given us local beer, a local pizza joint, a local reading group, and a simple way to recognize our excellent local Library.

Thanks for reading!

With love from Boise,

Amanda

Today's story was written by Amanda Patchin. Photo are by Ted Harmon @ted_the_capitalist.

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