Building of the Day: 441 6th Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time. Name: Park Slope Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library Address: 441 6th Avenue Cross Streets: 8th and 9th dtreets Neighborhood: Park Slope Year Built: 1906 Architectural Style: Classical Revival Architect: Raymond F. Almirall Other Buildings by Architect: Pacific, Bushwick and Eastern Parkway branches of the library, as well as…

Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Park Slope Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library
Address: 441 6th Avenue
Cross Streets: 8th and 9th dtreets
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1906
Architectural Style: Classical Revival
Architect: Raymond F. Almirall
Other Buildings by Architect: Pacific, Bushwick and Eastern Parkway branches of the library, as well as the 4th Avenue Public Bath, St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Sunset Park, and many other civic and public buildings.
Landmarked: Yes, individual landmark (1998)
The story: Litchfield Villa in Prospect Park was the site of the first Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. It was established there in 1900 as a traveling branch, featuring only books on natural history. But the local public clamored for more topics than that, especially books for children, so that in only a year, the library had amassed over 13,000 books, and had a membership of over 1,700 people. They needed a bigger place. In 1901, the branch was moved to two storefronts on 9th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues.
The city bought the land on 6th Avenue between 8th and 9th streets in 1903, and had already planned to build when Andrew Carnegie’s incredibly generous library program became available. Carnegie funded literally thousands of libraries all over the world, at the turn of the 20th century, believing that self-education was essential to raising the standards and lives of the working classes. He had been self-educated in this way, and it had certainly done wonders for him. This was his brilliant method of paying it forward, and in doing so, he changed the world.
The Carnegie Library Foundation ended up financing 67 branches scattered throughout the five boroughs of New York City, between 1901 and 1929. Brooklyn got 20 of them. Here, a Carnegie Library Committee was formed, with former Brooklyn mayor David A. Boody as Chairman. He was also the President of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Public Library. Boody appointed Professor A. D. F. Hamlin, of Columbia University, as architectural advisor. He, in turn, appointed a commission of Brooklyn architects to work on the individual designs, one of which was Raymond F. Almirall.
Almost all of the architects chosen to design the libraries were trained at the L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, so the designs for the libraries tended to have a very French Classical bent. Almirall had graduated from that august institution in 1895, and had a degree in architecture from Cornell University. He was a Brooklyn man, born and raised, and had probably checked out his first books in the local Brooklyn Heights library, when a student at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
The Prospect Branch, as it was called then, was the ninth of the Carnegie branches to open, which it did with great fanfare in 1906. There was, of course, some initial conflict over where it was to be located. Apparently a smaller site nearby was also in the running, and it was owned by a well-connected individual who wanted the city to buy the land from him at a premiere price. But the South Brooklyn Board of Trade, a very powerful local organization, lobbied hard for this site. They offered to pay for half of the cost of the land purchase, which was an offer the city couldn’t refuse, and the library got the entire block front of 6th Avenue, between 8th and 9th.
Almirall took advantage of this large site, and built a sprawling library building on most of it. The entrance is nicely set back from the street, with a lawn and trees. It is accessible by a small set of stairs and a welcoming entryway, one of the requisites of the Carnegie donation. Carnegie branch libraries are relatively humble, two story buildings, by in large. Carnegie wanted his money to go into the actual library and the books, not a showy façade. Almirall designed a very restrained Classical-influenced building, with a grand columned entryway ushering the reader inside to share in the knowledge within.
Inside, he took advantage of the wide building to design two main wings on either side of the building. One contained the children’s reading room, the other was for adults. There is lots of natural lighting, with large windows. The open circulating stacks were located mostly in the rear extension, which also included meeting rooms and facilities. More meeting rooms were in the basement. Essential also to all Carnegie Libraries was the large circulation desk, which Almirall centered in the middle of the building. The reading rooms had fine woodwork and large fireplaces, and beautiful interior stained glass window transoms, like a grand manor house.
The library has been busy since it first opened, and was open 365 days a year. The only time it closed in its early years was during the polio epidemic of 1916. It’s been renovated and upgraded several times in its existence, the last big renovation was finished in 2012. They kept much of the original interior, including the woodwork, stained glass, and the Grueby tiles on the fireplace surrounds, which in my opinion, makes this one of the most beautiful libraries in the system. The name was changed to the Park Slope Branch in 1975. The building was declared an individual landmark by the LPC in 1998. GMAP
(Photo: Kate Leonova for PropertyShark)







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