The Charles Dickens 24 Hour Free Reading Room, 854 Frontage Street, Copper Creek, CA
Funded by philanthropist and hot sauce magnate, Clarence Noah Camden, The Charles Dickens 24 Hour Free Reading Room is wedged between an appliance showroom and single-room-occupancy apartment house on a slightly shabby commercial block of this once-bustling lumber town. Intended—as the official charter for the reading room states—as “a place of solace in those empty hours of the night when our thoughts turn dark and despairing. Here we provide the comfort of the world’s greatest writer for any soul who would choose his company, at any time of the day.” Furnished with comfortable sitting chairs, hot tea and coffee, and ample copies of the complete works of Charles Dickens, the reading room has been in continuous operation since 1989.