New York City Structures: NY Public Library

The main branch of the New York Public Library celebrates its centennial anniversary this month. When it opened in 1911 it was known as “the People’s Palace.”
New York City Structures: NY Public Library
5/11/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img class="size-medium wp-image-1804177" title="MAIN LIBRARY: The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue between 40th Street and 42nd Street.  (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/citystructresNYPL.jpg" alt="MAIN LIBRARY: The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue between 40th Street and 42nd Street.  (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)" width="575"/></a>
MAIN LIBRARY: The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue between 40th Street and 42nd Street.  (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)


The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd streets
Architect: Carrere & Hastings
Year built:
1911

NEW YORK—The main branch of the New York Public Library celebrates its centennial anniversary this month. When it opened in 1911 it was known as “the People’s Palace.” In 2008 financier Stephen A. Schwarzman donated $100 million to the library and the building was renamed in his honor, now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

The grand Beaux-Arts structure is guarded by two famous lions named Patience (to the South, or left side as you face the building) and Fortitude (to the north), sculpted by Edward Clark Potter, and nicknamed by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia for the virtues New Yorkers might need to survive the tough times of the Great Depression. The building is a cultural center point for New York City, and a world-renowned research venue that has fueled the thoughts of some of the world’s greatest thinkers.

The generosity of private donors and the conjoining of two of the city’s already existing publicly accessible, though not publicly funded, libraries sparked the creation of the library.

John J. Tilden, former N.Y. governor and the owner of the Grammercy Park South townhouse that eventually became the National Arts Club, left $2.4 million in his will when he died in 1886 to fund a public library. The collections of The Astor Library, funded by John Jacob Astor, and the Lenox Library, created by James Lenox and housed in what is now the Frick Collection building on Fifth Avenue, were combined to create the main library’s initial collection of over 1,000,000 items. Inscriptions to each of the three main benefactors are inscribed in the marble above the portico along the Fifth Avenue entrance.

The library was officially opened on May 23, 1911. President William Howard Taft attended the ceremony and the next day it was opened to the public; tens of thousands of people came to explore the vast collection and to marvel in the building’s splendid design and new technology which enabled librarians to retrieve books requested from the miles and miles of shelves in only a few minutes.

The splendor and grand proportions of the design match the breadth of the library’s world-class collection. The Astor Hall main lobby has ceilings nearly four stories tall and welcomes visitors to the palatial interior. The impressive design is perhaps best exemplified in the Rose Reading Room with its 50-foot tall ceilings and measuring nearly 300 feet long by 80 feet wide.

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and designated as a NYC landmark in 1967.

A three-year, $50 million restoration effort was begun in 2008 and was completed earlier this year, in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary. The marble was cleaned and repairs were made to cracks in the building’s façade, as well as to the windows and masonry.