This Mass. library is the nation’s 2nd most popular, travel site finds

The Boston Public Library’s stately headquarters in Copley Square is one of the nation’s top destinations for book lovers and visitors alike, according to findings from a travel advice website.

The Central Library in the Back Bay, one of 26 locations in the city’s library system, opened in 1895 and is known for the quiet inner courtyard at the center of the square building and the iconic Bates Hall, an elegant reading rooming with a vaulted arch ceiling.

The National Park Service designated the library’s main McKim Building as a National Historic Landmark in 1986, noting its status as “the first outstanding example of Renaissance Beaux-Arts Classicism in America.”

Analyzing data from the travel website Tripadvisor and the social media platform TikTok, the travel site Islands ranked the Boston Public Library as the second most popular library in the country, behind the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The site found that Boston Public Library videos on TikTok racked up 11.6 million views. Videos from the Library of Congress earned 14.9 million views on the social media site.

The Boston library was reviewed more than 4,000 times on Tripadvisor, trailing the Library of Congress, the library at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the flagship location of the New York Public Library system.

Boston’s Central Library is open daily. The library system’s 25 other branches are located in neighborhoods throughout the city.

The library was established in 1848 as the first large free municipal library in the country. It was also the first to lend books, the first to have a branch library and the first to have a children’s room, according to its website.

Today, the library welcomes more than 4 million visitors annually.