The main building—now the Visitors’ Center—connects Lick’s first two domes. Its original offices, workrooms, visitors’ facilities and superb astronomical library made it the scientific and institutional heart of the observatory. The building’s stately windows, marble floors, and imposing woodwork were meant to express the lofty purpose of the observatory’s scientific mission. The building’s several million bricks were formed from the mountain’s native clay and spring water, then fired with mountain oak in kilns dug in a clearing below the summit. 
