LuEsther T. Mertz Library
2600 Southern Boulevard | Bronx Park | built 1897
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1896
Robert W. Gibson wins the competition to design the Botanical Garden's museum
The garden's board picked a hilltop site in March 1896, close to the Bedford Park railroad station, and held a design competition. Entrants included Ernest Flagg, William Appleton Potter, Clinton & Russell, Parish & Schroeder and N. Le Brun & Sons. Gibson was picked and filed plans that November for a building expected to cost $250,000.
- 1897
Ground is broken for the Botanical Museum after a dispute over funding
City money was withheld amid public debate over the building's location and design and over whether the park should stay an unspoiled landscape. After the first round of bids was ruled invalid, the John H. Parker Co. won the contract in November 1897 at $347,000. The ceremonial groundbreaking took place on the last day of that year, and bricklaying began in May 1898.
“On December 31, 1897, the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Botanical Museum took place. After foundation work, the first bricks of the walls were laid in May 1898.”
- 1898
Gibson's museum rises in gray brick and terra cotta chosen to blend with the landscape
By September 1898 the Times reported three-quarters of the steel frame up and the walls built to the second story, with a soft gray exterior picked so the building would not stand out in winter or summer. The buff terra cotta came from the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Co., whose factory was in Long Island City. Gibson's design was shown at the 1898 Architectural League exhibition and in several architecture journals.
- 1899
Columbia College gives 5,000 botanical volumes to the new garden library
The library founded alongside the museum began with 2,500 volumes. In 1899 Columbia College added another 5,000 books from its own botanical collection. It was the first library whose collection focused only on botany, and it is now the largest botanical research library in the United States.
“The library initially had 2,500 volumes; in 1899, Columbia College donated another 5,000 from its botanical collection.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1900
Anna Murray Vail takes charge of the garden's library
After an acting librarian, D.T. MacDougal, in 1899, Anna Murray Vail took charge of the library in January 1900 and held the post until September 1907. She was followed by John Hendley Barnhart and then Sarah Harlow, who led the library from 1913 to 1937.
“Anna Murray Vail (January 1900 – September 1907)…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1900
The Botanical Museum is completed, considered the largest of its kind in the world
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported in March 1900 that the building was just finished. It held a lecture hall at ground level, an economic botany museum and a plant-families museum on the next two floors, and a domed library reading room on the third, with laboratories and herbaria including Columbia University's. It also served as the garden's administration building.
- 1964
The museum's rear central wing gives way to the Harriet Barnes Pratt Library Wing
With the library and herbarium outgrowing the building, an addition was discussed from 1926 but only interior remodeling followed. Eggers & Higgins planned a library wing in 1958, and the museum's original rear central wing was torn down to make room. The Harriet Barnes Pratt Library Wing went up in 1964-65 but was not occupied until 1966.
“The original rear central wing of the Museum Building was demolished, and the Harriet Barnes Pratt Library Wing was built in 1964-65, but not occupied until 1966.”
- 2009
The city designates the Museum Building, its Fountain of Life and the Tulip Tree Allee as landmarks
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the original 1898-1901 building together with Carl Tefft's fountain and the tree-lined allee in front. At the October 2008 hearing six people spoke in favor, among them representatives of the garden, the Municipal Art Society and the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The later annexes to the building were left out of the designation.
Further reading
- LuEsther T. Mertz LibraryWikipedia
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