New York Society Library
53 East 79th Street | Upper East Side | built 1917
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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.
- 1789
George Washington borrows two books from the New York Society Library
According to the library's records, President Washington borrowed two titles on October 5, 1789, the twelfth volume of The Parliamentary Register and Vattel's The Law of Nations. The library's own researcher found no compelling reason to think he failed to return the Vattel, since a single-volume edition kept circulating afterward. There is no evidence, however, that volume 12 of the register was ever lent again, and the library's copy of the work is still missing two volumes, that one among them.
Source: nysoclib.org
- 1901
Architect Ogden Codman Jr. moves into a 13-foot-wide brownstone at 53 East 79th Street
In 1901 the interior designer Ogden Codman Jr. settled into the narrow brownstone that stood here before the present mansion. Four years earlier he and Edith Wharton had published The Decoration of Houses, and through Wharton he won commissions to redecorate Newport summer houses for millionaires such as Cornelius Vanderbilt II. After his October 1904 engagement to the wealthy widow Leila Webb, he left for a house he designed for her at 15 East 51st Street.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1917
The Rogers family replaces three narrow houses with a Trowbridge & Livingston palazzo
In 1916 the attorney John S. Rogers and his wife Catherine bought Codman's former house and its two equally narrow neighbors and had all three demolished. The architects Trowbridge & Livingston drew up a five-story dwelling, and the contractor Marc Eidlitz & Son was hired when the cost stood at $200,000. Finished in 1917, the Italian Renaissance house has shallow Doric pilasters at street level, pedimented parlor-floor windows and a stone balustrade that screens the fifth floor.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1918
A baby-saving campaign for New York City begins at a meeting in Catherine Rogers's home
The Maternity Centre Committee, established in 1918, held its first meeting at the Rogers house, and Catherine Rogers became closely involved in its work. The New-York Tribune reported the next day that the committee meant to open nine maternity centres across the city, built on the idea of saving children by protecting their mothers. Meetings there became a recurring custom for years afterward.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1926
Children of prominent families bring toys to a charity party at the Rogers mansion
More than a hundred boys and girls from socially prominent families gathered here for the Young Helpers' League Christmas party, a project meant to teach wealthy children about charity. Each child brought armloads of presents for youngsters in Lower East Side tenements, along with a coin box saved up over the year to pay a welfare worker's salary. The guests got hymns and refreshments rather than gifts, and the New York Times estimated the year's total donation at over $1,000.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1929
The Thursday Evening Club gathers at the Rogers mansion for a Metropolitan Opera program
On February 7, 1929, John S. Rogers and his wife Catherine opened their house at 53 East 79th Street to the Thursday Evening Club, an elite social group. Artists from the Metropolitan Opera performed for the wealthy guests. The evening came twelve years after the mansion's completion in 1917, long before it became a library.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1937
Snead and Company rips out the back of the Rogers house for twelve tiers of metal book stacks
Snead and Company of Jersey City rebuilt the Rogers house at 53 East 79th Street for the library. The firm tore out the back half of the house and replaced it with twelve tiers of metal stacks, and the library credits Snead with pioneering open stacks in twentieth-century library design. Franklin Fireproof Warehouses of Brooklyn was hired to move the 150,000 books for $8,100.
Source: nysoclib.org
- 1937
The library holds its formal opening on East 79th Street, its fifth home
On December 15, 1937, board chairman Lewis Spencer Morris welcomed members and guests to the formal opening of the New York Society Library in the former Rogers mansion. Many downtown subscribers, including Ruth Draper and Norman Thomas, renewed, and new uptown members included Edward Steichen. With the move, the annual subscription rose from $12 to $15.
Source: nysoclib.org
- 1937
The New York Society Library buys the Rogers house with a Goodhue bequest and moves in
The library's trustees used a 1917 bequest from the estate of Mrs. Charles C. Goodhue, which was meant to pay for a building. By 1936 careful investing had more than doubled the fund, and the house at 53 East 79th Street was bought and altered for library use. The library, which had been on University Place, moved in during July 1937 with over 150,000 volumes. The library, founded in 1754, still occupies the mansion.
Source: nysoclib.org
- 1952
A second large bequest puts the library on a sound financial footing
Fifteen years after buying the former Rogers mansion with the Goodhue bequest, the library received another large bequest in 1952, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission later said put it on a sound financial foundation. Modest subscription rates were kept for members. The library stayed open to public use, though only subscribers could take books out of the building.
“Another large bequest in 1952 put the Library on a sound financial foundation. Modest subscription rates are still maintained for the membership…”
- 1967
The Landmarks Commission designates the Rogers mansion and its library as a landmark
After hearings in November and December 1966, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the New York Society Library building on February 15, 1967. The Commission praised the Trowbridge & Livingston mansion as exceptional in character and noted the library's colonial origins in 1754. The chairman of the library's trustees wrote to accept the designation. The library stayed open to the public, though only subscribers could take books home.
- 1983
The Rogers house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
In 1983 the National Register of Historic Places listed the building under the name John S. Rogers House. The listing honored the mansion's design and the part the library has played in the city's history. It followed the city's own designation of the mansion as a landmark in 1967, one of the earliest in New York.
“…further listed on the National Register of Historic Places (as the John S. Rogers House) in 1983 in recognition of both its architecture and the library's historic role…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
Mount Vernon hands the library a replacement for the law book George Washington never returned
At a ceremony on May 19, 2010, the Mount Vernon estate of George Washington presented the library with a copy of Vattel's The Law of Nations, replacing the volume Washington borrowed on October 5, 1789 and never brought back. The ledger showed it due on November 2, 1789, with a fine of three pence a day. After press stories about the unpaid fine, Mount Vernon's James Rees and Joan Stahl found a copy of the same edition, and chairman Charles Berry forgave all overdue charges.
Source: nysoclib.org
Further reading
- New York Society LibraryWikipedia
- The John S. Rogers Mansion - 53 East 79th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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