Accra Central Library

The Accra Central Library stands out for its wide, sweeping concrete staircase that leads directly to the main entrance, an architectural choice meant to invite the public into the stacks. It opened in nineteen fifty-six as the flagship for the Ghana Library Board, a colonial-era project intended to foster literacy across the country. Elsie Grant, the first director, spent years hauling books through remote villages in mobile vans to build a readership before the doors to this concrete building ever opened.