Hunts Point Library
877 Southern Boulevard | Hunts Point | built 1929
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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.
- 1928
Carrère & Hastings model the Hunts Point library on a Florentine foundling hospital
Carrère & Hastings gave the branch an unusually direct Italian Renaissance design: its arcade with roundels deliberately recalls Brunelleschi's early 15th-century Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence. The library's own Bulletin called the exterior fourteenth-century Florentine, built of stone, brick and terra cotta to match the originals. Inside, the corner site allowed a separate children's entrance on Tiffany Street leading to a second floor given over to children, with its own reading room and fireplace.
- 1929
Three hundred children line up as New York's last Carnegie library opens
The 67th and final Carnegie branch in New York City opened on July 1, 1929, even though its interiors were not yet finished. The building and its equipment cost about $151,875, using up the last of the Carnegie funds. At the opening, 300 children waited at the children's entrance to sign up for library cards, and the branch started with 14,000 books and nineteen librarians.
“300 children lined up at the Children's Entrance waiting to take out library cards.”
- 1938
WPA money pays for a two-story addition at the back of the Hunts Point library
By 1934 the branch's head librarian was already asking the library's trustees for money to add activity space and another reading room. After the Works Progress Administration awarded the New York Public Library $2.5 million in 1935, Hunts Point got its wish: a two-story rear extension, completed in 1938. The building later closed for interior repairs from 1952 to 1954.
- 1946
The Hunts Point branch begins the Hispanic Heritage Collection it is known for
Serving a largely immigrant neighborhood, the branch already offered Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish books by 1941. Its Hispanic Heritage Collection traces its start to 1946, and in the 1960s librarian Lilian Lopez greatly expanded it with the help of a federal grant. By the 1970s the branch ran a strong Spanish-English bilingual program, even as budget cuts brought reduced hours during the neighborhood's hardest years.
- 1996
A chunk of terra cotta falls from the cornice and sparks a campaign to restore the library
After a new roof in 1980 and aluminum windows in 1982 that the head librarian called a disaster, the building was badly worn by the 1990s. In 1996 a large piece of terra cotta dropped from the cornice onto the sidewalk, drawing public attention, and a community group started raising money. In 1999 the area's City Council member promised $500,000 toward a $2.75 million restoration of the library inside and out.
“The building's plight finally caught the public's attention in 1996 after a sizeable chunk of terra cotta fell from the cornice to the sidewalk…”
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