Community Pushes to Landmark Pacific St. Library Branch

Last week the Park Slope Civic Council discussed the move of the Pacific Branch Library along 4th Avenue to the new Two Trees development and the threat the move poses to the building itself. The library branch, one of the 18 Carnegie branches in the city, needs $11 million of repair, according to last week’s article in the Brooklyn Paper. The PSCC tried to get the building landmarked back in 2004 and is now trying again, under the reasoning that the building is in imminent danger of being sold and then demolished. They’ll be resubmitting a request for evaluation to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. They also plan to submit an application for inclusion of the Pacific Branch Library on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2013 list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in the United States. Brooklyn Public Library official Josh Nachowitz told the Brooklyn Paper that the building is worth less than $10 million if sold. The money would go toward the interior build-out of the new branch at the Two Trees site, with leftover funds back into the Brooklyn library system. But this library sale ultimately requires the approval of city Council. That process would not begin until late this year or early the next. Meanwhile, on Friday, Brooklyn Heights group Citizens Defending Libraries protested the closure of another Brooklyn library, the Cadman Plaza branch, as the Brooklyn Heights Blog reported.