Pratt Institute Library

261 Hall Street | also 256 Ryerson Street, 331 Dekalb Avenue, 166 Willoughby Avenue | Clinton Hill | built 1954

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1896

    May 28

    Pratt Institute's separate library building opens with 61,000 volumes

    Pratt Institute's Free Library had been open to the public since 1888 in the school's Main Building, where it was Brooklyn's first free public library. As its collection and readership grew, a separate building became necessary. The new library opened on May 28, 1896, with 61,000 volumes.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1896

    William B. Tubby designs the library as a red-brick Renaissance Revival building

    Architect William B. Tubby gave the freestanding library three stories of red brick, with brick simulating rustication on the ground floor, round-arched windows on the second story, and at the western end a stacks wing two stories high. The landmarks report says its forms and materials closely echo his design for South Hall and harmonize with the Romanesque Revival Main Building. A small porch for the children's room was added in 1912 (removed in 1980), and the sandstone entrance porch on the north side dates from 1936.

    “Tubby designed the library building in a Renaissance Revival style... The enclosed sandstone entrance porch on the north, which dates from 1936…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1940

    Pratt's Free Library closes to the general public

    In 1940 the Pratt Institute Free Library stopped admitting the general public. By then the Brooklyn Public Library had greatly expanded what it offered, so Pratt's facility was no longer needed as a public resource. The building went on serving the students and faculty of the institute.

    “In 1940, the Pratt Institute Free Library was closed to the general public. By that time the Brooklyn Public Library had greatly expanded its activities…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1981

    December 22

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the library a city landmark

    After a public hearing on October 9, 1979, at which three witnesses spoke for designation and none against, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Pratt Institute Library a landmark on a list dated December 22, 1981. The commission's report calls it a Renaissance Revival building by William B. Tubby, constructed for what was Brooklyn's first free public library.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 13 buildings with stories in Clinton Hill