Patrons gather around the librarian’s desk, eager to claim their books at the Bedford Branch Library, in an early photo. The circa-1900 shot was most likely taken when the library was housed at 26 Brevoort Place, the former Brevoort family mansion, now demolished, in what is now Bed Stuy.

brooklyn photo bedford stuyvesant library 26 brevoort place
The former Brevoort Mansion circa 1905. Photo via Library of Congress

The Bedford Library, which opened in 1897, was the first branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system, but it had several homes before settling into its current location nearby at 496 Franklin Avenue in Bed Stuy in 1905.

What would those readers have been checking out in 1900? If they were looking for the most popular books of the year according to Publisher’s Weekly it would have meant hoping for copies of To Have and to Hold by Mary Johnston, Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley, or perhaps Richard Carvel by Winston Churchill.

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