Detroit Public Library

The DPL has so much to offer. Several things that haven’t been mentioned in previous reviews include:
HYPE — This teen center is beautiful, well staffed, has lots of comptuers and other resources and offers youth-​initated and youth-​planned events including poetry slams and field trips, as well as tutoring, free classes and workshops.
The Michigan Adventure Pass — Now in it’s second year, this program lets you check out a pass that admits either two or four people to dozens of museums and attractions throughout the Detroit area. If you can’t afford to pay $ 40 to take your family to the Henry Ford musuem then go the library and check out a pass for free.
Used Book Sale — I think they have it at least once a year or maybe more often. Tons of books and they aren’t all outdated textbooks and old cookbooks either. These are good, high quality books, sold very cheap to raise funds for the public library.

I grew up coming out to the Detroit Public Library. It is definitely a great landmark in Detroit, simply because it houses so many books and artifacts. There are about three floors, and also a basement that hosts an auditorium. Occasionally you can catch a few performances, such as African Story Tellers. My one complaint about the Library is the parking. There isn’t a designated lot, and so you must look for metered parking… which is always a pain.

Beautiful, old, pie shaped, architecturally restored library in a prime downtown spot (at the LIBRARY People Mover stop named for it) dedicated to all things automotive in the heart of the Motor City.
You can lose yourself for hours amongst the books, art and other historical and modern mementos to the auto industry. Be it a historical photography collection on the layouts and locations of the old car factories before they were outsourced, or the fantastic old cars that rolled out of them, or the people and their families who created the car companies or worked in them.
This place is really a people’s story not just about the cars themselves. If you’re from out of town, this place will give you a sense of just how profound an impact the industry had not just on the landscape and culture itself, but on the entire nation and world — without the factories in place, WWII would have been lost because not enough planes, tanks (and ships from Ford’s massive Rouge complex) could have been turned out fast enough to replace the ones destroyed in combat. Hitler would have won if not for the instant change in 1942 from car making to war work.
There’s also technical manuals and other information you need to fix your car if you wish. And the interior is so beautiful and the wedge shape of the building allows for so many windows. It just takes your breath away if you knew how run down the place was before the renovation.
If feels like you’re back in 1922 or whenever the place was built. In the spring, the crab apple trees flourish in a quaint burst of pink flowers uncommon in modern, mundane downtown landscaping. And you can see them from those big, restored windows.