User:Epicgenius/sandbox/Archive 2

=Page=

The Central Library, originally the Ingersoll Memorial Library, is the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in Brooklyn, New York City. Located on Grand Army Plaza, at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway, it contains over 1.7 million materials in its collection and has a million annual visitors. The current structure was designed by the partnership of Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally in the Art Deco style, replacing a never-completed Beaux-Arts structure designed by Raymond Almirall. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The site of the library was selected in 1905, but groundbreaking for the Brooklyn Central Library did not begin until 1912. Escalating costs and political infighting slowed construction throughout the next two decades, and only the Flatbush Avenue wing of Almirall's building was ever completed. In 1935, Githens and Keally were commissioned to redesign the building in the Art Deco style; when construction recommenced in 1938, and Almirall's building on Flatbush Avenue was largely demolished. The Central Library opened to the public on February 1, 1941, and its second floor opened in the mid-1950s. The structure was significantly renovated in the 1970s, 2000s, and 2020s.

The Central Library is a four-story building that resembles an open book as viewed from the air. The modern facade is made of limestone and contains relatively little ornamentation, except around the main entrance on Grand Army Plaza. The main entrance facade, accessed by a raised terrace, is curved and contains various inscriptions, in addition to tall, gilded columns by C. Paul Jennewein and a screen by Thomas Hudson Jones. The Flatbush Avenue wing to the southeast is longer than the Eastern Parkway wing to the east; both wings contain decorative windows and additional entrances. The library has a floor area of 350000 ft2, centered around a triple-height circulation room. There are various reading rooms on the first through third stories, as well as an auditorium beneath the main entrance terrace.

Site
The Brooklyn Central Library is in the central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, on the border of the Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights neighborhoods. It is located on a roughly triangular site facing Eastern Parkway to the north, Grand Army Plaza to the northwest, and Flatbush Avenue to the southwest. The site has dimensions of 610 ft on Flatbush Avenue, 581 ft to the east, and 416 ft on Eastern Parkway. The main entrance, at the northeast corner of the building, is recessed behind a raised terrace. The Central Library's main entrance faces the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch within Grand Army Plaza, the primary gateway to Prospect Park, to the west. The building shares a large city block with Mount Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Brooklyn Museum to the east and southeast.

The library building is part of a larger land lot along the eastern side of Flatbush Avenue between Grand Army Plaza and Empire Boulevard. The then-independent city of Brooklyn had acquired this land in the 1860 for the creation of modern-day Prospect Park. Egbert Viele's first proposal for Prospect Park, in 1861, called for the park to straddle Flatbush Avenue. Land acquisition began in 1860, but the onset of the American Civil War delayed further development of the park; following the war, the land to the east of Flatbush Avenue was excluded from the park. The Mount Prospect site went unused until the late 1880s, when a library was proposed for a portion of the site. Mount Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden occupied the remainder of the site.

Development
As early as April 1889, Brooklyn's park commissioners had recommended constructing a Brooklyn central library near Grand Army Plaza, just outside Prospect Park. The Brooklyn Public Library system was approved by an Act of Legislature of the State of New York on May 3, 1892. The BPL opened its first branch library, the Bedford Library at PS 3 in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in December 1897; this branch moved among various buildings, including a former mansion at 26 Brevoort Place. Although the formerly independent city of Brooklyn became part of the City of Greater New York in 1898, the BPL declined to merge with the New York Public Library (NYPL). In the long run, the BPL wanted to build a central library and a series of branch libraries throughout the borough of Brooklyn.

Site selection
By March 1900, the BPL's directors were planning to construct a central library in Brooklyn; the New York State Legislature had provided $500,000 for the construction of such a structure. That May, the BPL's board voted to recommend that the central library be built along Eastern Parkway, as close as possible to Grand Army Plaza. Andrew Carnegie donated $1.6 million to BPL for the construction of 20 Carnegie branch libraries in 1901, but the New York City government would only appropriate money for a central library after funding for the branch libraries had been secured. Carnegie also considered funding the central library under the condition that the BPL, the private Brooklyn Library, and the Long Island Historical Society combined their collections. At the time, several sites for a central library building were being considered, including a plot at the corner of Bedford Avenue and Herkimer Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant. The Brooklyn Library merged its sizable reference collection with that of the BPL in 1902, but the Long Island Historical Society refused to merge with the other two libraries.

Although BPL president David A. Boody urged the creation of a central library for Brooklyn, the trustees wished to first build several the 20 Carnegie branches. By mid-1904. a committee had been created to identify and recommend sites for the Brooklyn Central Library. After a year of consultations, consulting architect A. D. F. Hamlin recommended in May 1905 that the central library be constructed at Grand Army Plaza; mayor George B. McClellan Jr. authorized the selection of that site shortly afterward. Various persons opposed the site for its small size, irregular shape, and distance from Downtown Brooklyn. New York City's parks commissioner wanted the plaza site to be used as parkland, and the director of the Brooklyn Museum wanted the site for future expansion of the museum. At McClellan's request, Carrère and Hastings, the architects of the NYPL's main branch, determined in November 1905 that Grand Army Plaza was a suitable site for a central library. The next month, the BPL's site-selection committee ratified the selection of the Plaza site. The plaza was already well served by public transit, and there were plans to extend the New York City Subway to the area.

Approval of Almirall's plans
The Board of Estimate allotted $25,000 in May 1906 for the preparation of plans for the central library. Local architect Raymond F. Almirall, who had designed three Carnegie libraries in Brooklyn, was hired that July to design the Brooklyn Central Library. Almirall, Hamlin, and BPL chief librarian Frank Hill went to Europe, analyzing two dozen buildings in various cities. They wrote a lengthy report later the same year, which was presented to the BPL's trustees in October 1906. Almirall had submitted plans for a $3.25 million central library to the BPL's directors by September 1907. The directors postponed a decision on these plans, citing uncertainty over the plaza site, before conditionally approving them that November. The Municipal Art Commission also approved the plans in December 1907.

The BPL had begun accepting bids to construct the new library and requested $300,000 from the Board of Estimate in January 1909, at which point the building's estimated cost was as high as $5 million. Later that year, Boody asked the city government to issue bonds for the project. The Board of Estimate appropriated $300,000 for the library building in 1910 and promised to give $530,000 in each of the two following fiscal years. By the time the NYPL had completed its main branch in 1911, the BPL had not even started its own central library, even though the Brooklyn Central Library had been planned before the NYPL Main Branch. Work on the Brooklyn Central Library was supposed to begin that June, but the Board of Estimate refused to grant an appropriation for the building the next month. Test borings for the site commenced in July 1911, and plans for the Flatbush Avenue wing were filed with the Bureau of Buildings in January 1912.

Construction of original building
Construction of the Brooklyn Central Library's first section spanned multiple mayoral administrations with varying levels of interest in completing the building. The Brooklyn Central Library's groundbreaking ceremony occurred on June 5, 1912, with mayor William Jay Gaynor in attendance. A contract for the foundations was awarded the same month.

Initial progress and work stoppage
Engineers surveying the site found in early 1912 that the site had large amounts of peat moss and that the building needed deep foundations because of its proximity to the Mount Prospect Reservoir. Early the following year, the BPL requested $20,000 for books for the Central Library. Workers were also busy excavating the building's foundations, but foundation contractor Charles Meads reported that the work was several months behind schedule because of inclement weather, loose ground, and a lack of funding. Although the foundation had been completed by early 1914, there was not enough money for the rest of the structure, and the city and the foundation contractor had become involved in a lawsuit over cracks in the foundation. Gaynor's successor, John Purroy Mitchel, felt that funds for the Central Library would be better spent on schools and other projects.

City aldermen appropriated $210,000 for the construction of the building's Flatbush Avenue wing in December 1915. Local newspapers reported that, if the wing were not constructed, the foundation would deteriorate. Plans for the basement and first story of the Flatbush Avenue wing were filed with the Bureau of Buildings in March 1916, at which point the wing was expected to cost $600,000. Brooklyn's borough president filed revised plans for the wing that September, and the BPL began receiving bids for the library building's construction, Brooklyn's borough president rejected all the bids in December 1916 for being too expensive;  the same month, an additional $56,000 was appropriated for the project. Work on the Flatbush Avenue wing began in March 1917. Although contractor Thomas Dwyer had only just started erecting the basement and first floor by the beginning of 1919, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said about $724,000 had been spent on the building to date, while city officials gave a different figure of $412,000. According to the city, Almirall had received $129,000 in architects' fees through the end of 1919, despite the minimal progress on the building. Local residents wanted the building's development to be accelerated so the BPL's research collection could be relocated there.

No construction occurred from 1918 to 1925, while John Francis Hylan was mayor of New York City. Borough president Edward J. Riegelmann requested another $1 million from the city in 1921, and city officials agreed to an additional appropriation that May after touring the still-incomplete edifice. The same year, a fence was erected around the site. Governor Nathan L. Miller signed legislation in April 1922 authorizing officials to raise money for the building's completion. Afterward, Riegelmann asked the Board of Estimate for permission to raise $11 million in bonds for the Central Library. Because Hylan opposed further funding for the building, the Board of Estimate notified Riegelmann in July 1923 that it would not provide further funding for the Central Library unless the plans were scaled down. Hylan's refusal to fund the Central Library became a point of contention in the 1925 New York City mayoral election, where Hylan's opponents claimed that he had doubled the city's budget without providing anything for the library building. Only one story of one wing had been completed and was covered with a temporary roof.

Attempts to complete the building
After Jimmy Walker succeeded Hylan as mayor at the beginning of 1926, his comptroller Charles W. Berry expressed support for completing the Central Library. The Board of Estimate indicated in April 1926 that it would provide $750,000 for the Central Library, and it approved the appropriation that June. By then, the building was planned to cost $14 million to $15 million. City experts recommended that, as a money-saving measure, the expensive Tennessee marble facade of the first story be replaced with cheaper limestone or Missouri marble. Despite Brooklyn officials' desire to resume work as soon as possible, the city did not award a contract for a year after receiving the appropriation. The city hired the Thomas J. Waters Company in August 1927 to complete the building, and work finally resumed that October. The Waters Company demolished the existing Tennessee marble facade, which was expected to reduce total construction costs by $2 million. Afterward, the company planned to construct a three-story wing measuring 285 by across.

The Board of Estimate voted in November 1928 to authorize the issuance of up to $1.25 million in stock for the Central Library's completion, and Brooklyn officials began soliciting bids for the building's completion. City officials agreed in July 1929 to demolish a water tower in Mount Prospect Park, which abutted a portion of the building's foundation that had to be rebuilt, but the water tower was not razed until six months later. By the end of 1929, city engineer William P. Hennessy was preparing plans for the construction of the building's Eastern Parkway wing, rear wing, and central portion. A groundbreaking ceremony for these three sections occurred on January 6, 1930. Contractors were obligated to complete the foundations for these three structures within 250 days. By early 1931, Brooklyn borough president Henry Hesterberg was requesting another $9 million or $9.5 million from the Board of Estimate. Although the board had previously been reluctant to give the Central Library such a large appropriation, Hesterberg said the city could reduce the total construction cost by funding the entirety of the project at once.

Work stalled once again in 1931, after the foundations were finished. On rainy days, the foundations of the Eastern Parkway wing were inundated, and local children often played with model boats there; at one point, a boy reportedly drowned in the foundations. By 1932, the BPL's directors were calling the Central Library "a monument to municipal procrastination". The site was also referred to as the "Pigeon Palace", the "Pigeon Roost", the "Roman Ruins of Brooklyn", and a "hideous old wreck". The system's circulation had more than doubled compared to 1912, when the Central Library's construction had started, while the number of patrons had nearly doubled. Hesterberg requested in early 1932 that the city pay Almirall $258,000 in architect's fees. At the same time, the city's board of aldermen notified the BPL that the city government did not have enough funding to cover the Central Library's full cost. The BPL unsuccessfully attempted to obtain funding for the library in 1931 and 1933.

Current library
In late 1933, local businessmen asked the city government to request a $9 million loan from the Public Works Administration (PWA). After more than a year, the city voted in April 1935 to request $5 million from the PWA. Brooklyn borough president Raymond Ingersoll announced the next month that Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally had redesigned the building; most of the main public rooms were relocated to the ground story, while offices and backroom operations were relocated to the upper stories. Ingersoll promised that September to finish the Central Library. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia officially requested the funding from the PWA the same month, but the PWA had still not approved the loan by the end of that year. Githens and Keally completed their preliminary designs in February 1936. The original Beaux-Arts design was completely scrapped in favor of an Art Deco design, and the building was redesigned with a fan-shaped plan.

Redesign and completion
Local leaders formed a committee in February 1936 to advocate for the building's completion. Supporters of the Central Library said the BPL's existing central library was suitable for a city with 50,000 residents, two percent of Brooklyn's population at the time. Between April and June 1936, about 200,000 people signed a petition asking PWA secretary Harold L. Ickes to approve money for the building, By then, Ingersoll described the Central Library as the highest-priority "needed improvement" in Brooklyn. Parks commissioner Robert Moses drew up revised plans for the Central Library, La Guardia sent these plans to the BPL in August 1936. Ingersoll requested $2 million from the Board of Estimate in January 1937. and the board approved the funding two months later. The board also approved $20,000 for a modification of the plans that May; it would approve the remaining funds once the plans had been revised. Draftsmen quickly began revising the plans, and the Board of Estimate appropriated $1.883 million for the project that November.

Ingersoll began soliciting bids for the Central Library's construction in December 1937. Shortly thereafter, the Cauldwell–Wingate Company received the $1.3 million general contract for the project, and four other companies were awarded contracts for mechanical work. Work began on February 14, 1938, with the demolition of the existing fourth story and removal of the original decorations. To save money, the existing frame was retained. The Board of Estimate approved $30,000 for sculptures on the Central Library in April 1938, and Thomas Hudson Jones and C. Paul Jennewein were hired to design the sculptures, which the Municipal Art Commission approved the same year. In June 1938, the PWA authorized $2.5 million for the Central Library; only the first story was to be fitted out initially. The building was nearly completed in August 1939, several months ahead of schedule, but the city had not appropriated funding for salaries. The city issued $200,000 in bonds that August to fund further construction, and the Board of Estimate provided another $101,000 two months later for equipment.

La Guardia toured the Central Library in December 1939, by which time administrative staff had begun moving into the third floor. Because the second floor had not been furnished, the BPL's extension department was forced to work in the building's garage. The BPL began moving books into the Central Branch in early 1940, and the Central Library had 360,000 books in its stacks by that October. That month, BPL chief librarian Milton J. Ferguson requested another $300,000 to complete the second floor, and the Board of Estimate agreed to provide $500,000 shortly afterward. The BPL also announced plans to spend $1,500 on inscribed capstones memorializing Ingersoll, who had died the same year. Upon its opening, the building had 170 employees, excluding WPA workers, and it contained 460,000 books in its collection.

Opening, 1940s, and 1950s
The Central Library opened for public previews on February 1, 1941, as the Ingersoll Memorial Library; the library building opened for limited service two days later. It was the first permanent library building to be opened in Brooklyn in nearly two decades. Because the basement and second story were largely unfinished, some of the offices were housed within the reading room and within a completed portion of the second story. Within two weeks of the building's opening, so many patrons had borrowed books that the BPL limited the number of books that cardholders could borrow; furthermore, the building could only operate for four to seven hours per day due to staff shortages. The Central Library was formally dedicated on March 29, 1941, and the Ingersoll memorial capstones were dedicated in September 1941. The children's library and three departments of the Central Library opened at the beginning of October 1941. By then, the library building was handling 400,000 volumes, prompting Ferguson to ask for money to expand the stacks.

The opening of the Central Library meant that the BPL no longer had to rent space for its administrative offices. Consequently, when the building was completed, about two-thirds of the interior was used for administrative purposes. With the Central Library's opening, the BPL could also take many of its books out of storage. By the beginning of 1942, the Central Library was operating eleven hours a day on weekdays. The Central Library opened a "consumers' corner" with books about consumption of goods in early 1942, and it began lending phonograph records to BPL cardholders the same year. In October 1942, the BPL formally dedicated the bas-reliefs that Jennewein had carved into the main entrance's columns.

By late 1946, BPL officials believed that the building's second floor needed to be completed to accommodate the borough's growing population. At the time, the second floor did not have any flooring, lighting, or radiators, and there was exposed wiring. The BPL's trustees asked the City Planning Commission in 1948 for $1.385 million to complete the second floor; of this, $385,000 would come from the city's 1949 and 1950 budgets. The still-incomplete second floor was used for an exhibit in 1951. New York City public works commissioner Frederick H. Zurmuhlen requested in April 1952 that the Board of Estimate approve $900,000 for the fitting-out of the Central Library's second floor. By then, the Central Library had a total annual circulation of 1.021 million, about one-seventh of the BPL system's total circulation. The New York Times wrote that library patrons often stood in the main circulating room, while the second floor was being used as storage space.

The Board of Estimate appropriated $900,000 for the second floor in August 1952, at which point increasing material costs had caused the project's price to rise to $1.125 million. Three of the ground-story reading rooms would be relocated to the second story. The building's basement would contain new workshop space, and a pneumatic tube system would be installed throughout the building. The project would increase the Central Library's usable space from 60224 to 102000 ft2. The New York City Department of Public Works began soliciting bids for three construction contracts in September 1952, and the city awarded $1 million in contracts for the project at the end of that year. Work on the Central Library was delayed by a strike in mid-1953, but the second story was completed in 1955. The BPL installed a flagpole outside the Eastern Parkway wing of the building in 1959.

1960s and 1970s
In 1960, the BPL's chief librarian Francis R. St. John requested money to rehabilitate the Central Library, but the Board of Estimate was willing to provide only $30,000 out of the requested $2.5 million. St. John asked the city for another $115,000 in 1961, though he said the next year that the project would cost $3.235 million. The first and second floors were extended to the rear in 1964, concealing the rear facade. After mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. approved $2.891 million in funding for the building's expansion in April 1965, the BPL hired Keally and Frederick G. Frost Jr. & Associates to design an annex to the building. Brooklyn borough president Abe Stark announced the same year that floodlights would be installed on the Central Library's facade. The BPL planned a two-story annex with a garage and an adult-service room, as well as several new rooms and a set of escalators in the existing building. The new spaces would include a phone-reference room and a book processing department on the first floor; a reading room, microfilm area, and research cubicles on the second floor; and remodeled offices and a larger cafeteria on the third floor. The BPL was still awaiting final approval for the renovation by 1967.

A renovation of the Central Branch began in August 1969. The project lasted several years, with the building remaining open throughout. The Central Library's biography–history–travel and language–literature departments were moved to another part of the building in February 1971, after part of the second floor had been renovated, and the art–music and audiovisual divisions were moved that October. The lobby's floor was replaced later the same year. The renovation was completed in July 1973 when several spaces opened on the first floor. These included an expanded periodicals wing in the rear; a language and literature wing on Flatbush Avenue; the Ingersoll Room, which had an extensive paperback collection; and the children's library on Eastern Parkway. The renovation allowed the BPL to begin circulating books that had previously been stored in the building's stacks. The city government approved funding for further repairs to the Central Library in 1974.

=References=