Port Richmond Library

75 Bennett Street | also 75 Heberton Avenue | Port Richmond | built 1905

Open on the map5 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. 1902

    New York Public Library buys a corner lot facing Port Richmond's park for a branch

    Real estate agent Cornelius G. Kolff, hired to find a Port Richmond site, praised the corner of Heberton Avenue and Bennett Street in a 1902 report as the best location in the village, across from the public park and near trolleys, the station, the high school and churches. The library bought the 100-by-100-foot property from Jose F.J. Xiques that year for $5,000, and the frame house standing on it was torn down.

    “The library bought this 100 foot by 100 foot property from Jose F.J. Xiques in 1902 for $5000 .”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1904

    April 3

    A 19-year-old leaves a letter to the future in the library's foundation

    Edmund Joseph Nolan, a nineteen-year-old Port Richmond resident, wrote a letter dated April 3, 1904, to be placed in the new library's foundation, predicting that the country village might one day be a thriving town with many libraries. He asked that whoever found it publish the contents and give it to Andrew Carnegie to exhibit. The letter turned up in 1938, when an addition was built onto the library.

    “It was found in 1938 when an addition to the original library was constructed.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1905

    March 18

    Port Richmond's Carnegie library opens to a packed crowd

    The branch opened on a sunny Saturday, March 18, 1905, with the building full for the ceremony. Speakers included Board of Aldermen president Charles V. Fornes, Borough President George Cromwell and library officials John S. Billings and Arthur Bostwick, while the P.S. 20 glee club and Miss Cora Butley's mandolin class performed. The building and its equipment cost $25,398.

    “The library opened on March 18, 1905, on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The crowd filled the library for the opening day ceremony…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1905

    Carrère & Hastings design the branch as one of 67 Carnegie libraries

    The Port Richmond Branch was one of four Carnegie branches on Staten Island and one of 67 in the city, paid for by Andrew Carnegie's $5.2 million gift of 1901. Carrère & Hastings, who also designed the library's Main Building, gave it a Classical Revival front with a columned portico over a flight of steps and large arched windows. The firm designed thirteen other Carnegie branches as well, and the library sits prominently on a corner lot.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1938

    A WPA-funded addition gives the library an auditorium and custodian's flat

    In 1938-39 the library gained a one-and-a-half-story brick rear addition, paid for with Works Project Administration money and designed to match the original. It added a first-floor reading room at the back, an apartment for the custodian upstairs, and a basement auditorium, the small raised-stage Chimes Theater. The branch has operated as a library without a break since it opened in 1905.

    “In 1938-39 a one-and-one-half-story brick rear addition, which reflected the design of the original library, was built with Works Project Administration funds.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 11 buildings with stories in Port Richmond