Did You Know? Little-Known Facts About the Library

• A reservoir for knowledge: The Library's original landmark building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street was built on the site of the old Croton Reservoir.  Some stones were used to construct the Library's original foundation and can now be seen from the lower levels of the South Court building.
  
  
• Horses were both frequent and welcomed visitors to the landmark Library's open-air southern courtyard,  designed as the service and delivery center.  Books were delivered by horse-drawn carts via the covered driveway from 40th Street.  Tie posts and a horse trough complemented the southern courtyard's other fixtures, which included a marble fountain in its center and functioning bronze lampposts and hydrants.
  
  
• The south courtyard was the recreational and social center for Library staff.  A one-story "bungalow" was constructed in 1919 to serve as a lunchroom and was the only above-ground addition made to the Library's exterior.
  
  
• That's Entertainment!  In its early history, the south courtyard played host to an array of events including receptions, readings, amateur drama performances, puppet shows, and at least one home-grown "circus." For a pageant celebrating the Library's fortieth anniversary, the court was hung with Japanese lanterns and toy balloons.  Dressed in turn-of-the-century costumes, staffers regaled the audience with scenes from the Library's early history and a revue of satirical skits.  The evening culminated with dancing in the main lobby.
  
  
• The landmark Library's floor plan was sketched on a postcard in 1897 by John Shaw Billings, The New York Public Library's first Director.  As the postcard shows (right), both the northern and southern courtyards were in place from the start.
  
  
• The end of an era: After automobiles replaced the horses, parking was only sporadically permitted.  In 1950, after the central fountain was demolished due to chronic city-wide water shortages, the courtyard was converted to a parking lot.  The courtyard's reign as the Library's center of social activities was over.
  
  
• Construction of the original Library took twelve years (from 1899-1911) and cost New York City $9,002,523.09.
  
  
• 530,000 cubic feet of marble were used in the construction of the landmark Library (including the courtyard walls) – that's more than six times the marble used in the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Chamber of Commerce combined.  At the time of its opening, the Library was the largest marble building ever built in the United States. Its cornerstone, laid on November 10, 1902, weighs 7.5 tons and holds a relic box containing contracts between New York City and the Library, photographs, newspapers, and letters from the Trustees and Mayor of New York.
  
  
• The marble chosen originated in two quarries on Dorset Mountain in Vermont.  Over sixty-five percent of the stone quarried failed to meet the architects' rigid standards.  The stone rejected by the Library was incorporated into other contemporary buildings including Harvard Medical School.
  
  
• The landmark building was originally fueled by coal, needing more than 20 tons a day, and producing ash that had to be carted away daily.
  
  
• On opening day in 1911, the first book requested from the main stacks was Delia Bacon's Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded.  The book, much to the staff's chagrin, was not in the catalog and a staff member donated the book two days later.  Fifty years later it was discovered that the interchange had been a setup; the staff member had hoped to generate publicity for the book. The first book to actually be delivered from the main stacks, a speedy seven minutes after the call slip was deposited, was in fact a Russian-language study of Nietzsche and Tolstoy.
  
  
• The marble floors of the Library were deemed so hard that in 1911 all employees were supplied with rubber soled shoes.  The O'Sullivan Company quickly exploited the fact and placed advertisements urging consumers to visit the Library, where the employees used the company's heels.
  
  
• Library employees once ran a Co-operative General Store in the building's basement.  The store opened June 9, 1920, and carried everything from stockings to sardines.  It sold groceries and general merchandise, canned and fresh foodstuffs, produce, tobacco products, even clothing and sewing notions.
  
  
• In 1926, the Library boasted six former Olympic athletes on its staff (four Americans and two Danes): a hurdler, three high jumpers, one broad jumper, a mountain climber, an oarsman/canoeist, and a discus thrower.

South Court press release | History and background | Research instruction | Programs | Recent renovations

April 26, 2002

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