Stone Avenue Library

581 Mother Gaston Boulevard | also 589 Mother Gaston Boulevard | Brownsville | built 1914

Open on the map6 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. 1914

    September 24

    The Brownsville Children's Library opens with more than 8,000 volumes

    The Brownsville Children's Library, later the Stone Avenue Branch, officially opened on September 24, 1914, with over 8,000 volumes. It was proposed to ease overcrowding at the Carnegie branch on Glenmore Avenue and admitted children below high school age, described as the first library of its kind in the country. The total cost, with construction and furnishings, was $87,206.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1914

    Children's librarian Clara W. Hunt shapes the new branch and its storybook carvings

    Clara W. Hunt, who spent 36 years as the Brooklyn Public Library's Superintendent of Work with Children, worked directly with the architects, William Tubby & Sons, to make the building suit young readers. With them she developed the plan for its low-relief carvings, which were meant to interest the library's young readers and mark its pioneering purpose for children.

    “Hunt, in consultation with the architects, developed the iconographic program that identifies the building and its pioneering educational mission.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1914

    William B. Tubby designs a Jacobean Revival children's library with carved storybook figures

    Tubby's building has red-and-black tapestry-brick walls, a squat corner tower, recessed entrances and a partly crenellated parapet. Small stone panels show characters from children's literature, among them Aladdin, Robin Hood and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Printer's marks on the parapet stand for the origins of the printed book.

    “Designed in the Jacobean Revival style, with a squat corner tower, the tapestry brick facades…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1937

    Visiting librarians tour the Brownsville Children's Library and rank it among the nation's best

    When the Library Association of America met for its 1937 annual convention in New York City, some of its members, struck by the library's innovations, visited the Brownsville Children's Library and rated it among the most outstanding juvenile institutions in the United States.

    “…members, impressed with its innovations toured the Brownsville Children's Library and acknowledged it as one of the most outstanding juvenile institutions in the United States…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1981

    Rosetta Gaston founds Heritage House inside the Stone Avenue library

    Community activist Rosetta Gaston, born in 1885 and devoted to educating youth and fighting for civil rights, founded Heritage House in 1981 as a multicultural center inside the Stone Avenue Branch. It teaches young and old about African American culture and holds books and photographs of prominent African Americans, along with sculptures, graffiti by local artists and photo collages on Brownsville's history. Stone Avenue was renamed Mother Gaston Boulevard the same year.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 2015

    April 14

    Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Stone Avenue Branch library

    After an April 7, 2015 hearing, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Brooklyn Public Library's Stone Avenue Branch a landmark on April 14, 2015. Five speakers backed the designation, among them Council Member Darlene Mealy and David Woloch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and no one opposed it. Representatives of the Historic Districts Council and the Society for the Architecture of the City also testified in support.

    “At that hearing there were five speakers in favor of the designation ... There were no speakers in opposition to the designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 2 buildings with stories in Brownsville