New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 5th Avenue | also 11 West 40th Street, 2 West 42nd Street, 1 West 40th Street | Midtown | built 1940
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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.
- 1911
President Taft dedicates the library on the old reservoir site
The library was built on the site of the Croton Reservoir, chosen in 1896. Carrère and Hastings' Beaux-Arts building was dedicated on May 23, 1911, with President William Howard Taft presiding, and opened to the public the next day. Its entrance lions were first nicknamed Leo Astor and Leo Lenox; in the 1930s Mayor Fiorello La Guardia renamed them Patience and Fortitude, qualities he said New Yorkers needed to get through the Depression.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1911
The first book called for at the library is a publicity stunt, and the first one delivered arrives in seven minutes
On May 24, 1911, the day the public was invited in, the first book called for was Delia Bacon's Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, a publicity stunt for a title the Main Branch did not hold. The first book actually delivered was N. I. Grot's study of Nietzsche and Tolstoy. That reader submitted his slip at 9:08 a.m. and received the book seven minutes afterward.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1911
Two thousand mourners view architect John Carrere's coffin in the library's rotunda
John Carrere, who designed the library with Thomas Hastings, died before it opened, and in March 1911 some two thousand people filed past his coffin in the rotunda. Historians dispute which partner shaped the design more. Bronze busts of both men, made in 1940 for Carrere and 1935 for Hastings, now stand at the landings of the two grand staircases in Astor Hall.
“Carrère died before the building was opened, and in March 1911, two thousand people viewed his coffin in the library's rotunda.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1911
Sculptors carve the marble lions that flank the library steps
The Piccirilli Brothers carved the two marble lions guarding the Fifth Avenue entrance as the library neared completion, following the 1897 competition that the little-known firm of Carrère and Hastings had won to design the building on the old reservoir site. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia later nicknamed them Patience and Fortitude during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1923
Norbert Pearlroth starts researching Ripley's Believe It or Not! at the library
From 1923 until 1975, Norbert Pearlroth read an estimated 7,000 books a year in the library as researcher for the Ripley's Believe It or Not! series. He was one of many writers and thinkers who worked at the 42nd Street building: other patrons have included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Norman Mailer, Frank McCourt, Tom Wolfe and the boxer Joe Frazier.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
Thomas Hastings draws up plans for two new wings and a Bryant Park addition
In August 1928 the New York Times reported that Thomas Hastings of Carrere & Hastings, which had designed the original building, had drawn up plans for two new wings on the Fifth Avenue side of the library. The plans also called for a new unit in Bryant Park, behind the existing structure. The headline promised that book space would be doubled, subject to the city's approval.
Source: The New York Times
- 1967
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the library a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission's report, dated January 11, 1967, called the library one of the masterpieces of Beaux-Arts architecture and a magnificent civic monument. It noted a reading room as large as half an acre, eighty miles of bookshelves, books in 3,000 languages and dialects, and more than 8,900 visitors a day. The library's director wrote to the commission approving designation, and the building was said to have cost $9 million.
- 1998
The Rose Main Reading Room reopens after restoration
Following an extensive cleaning and restoration, the library's grand third-floor reading room reopened to the public. The room had been part of a broader wave of renovation at the Fifth Avenue building that included restoring the terraces in 1988 and opening underground stacks beneath Bryant Park in 1991.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
The library abandons its plan to turn the 42nd Street building into a circulating branch
On May 7, 2014, the New York Public Library said it was dropping the Central Library Plan, a $300 million scheme to turn the 42nd Street research building into a circulating library. The plan would have demolished the book stacks under the Rose Reading Room and sent more than a million books to storage in New Jersey. Construction had been paused the previous July after scholars and preservationists sued to protect the stacks.
Source: nydailynews.com
Further reading
- New York Public Library Main BranchWikipedia
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