1902 - New York Public Library - New York City, NY
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Metro2
N 40° 45.212 W 073° 58.892
18T E 585973 N 4511896
This is the cornerstone to the well-known Main branch of the New York Public Library.
Waymark Code: WMCE26
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 08/27/2011
Views: 19
The cornerstone is actually in Roman numerals- MDCCCCII. It is set on the building's 5th Avenue and 42nd Street corner. It's official name is the Humanities and Social Science Library. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1966 along with the adjacent Bryant Park.
Wikipedia (
visit link) reports that the building was under construction from 1897-1911.
and adds,
"The consolidation of several libraries into the New York Public Library in 1901, along with the large Tilden bequest and the Carnegie donation, allowed for the creation of an enormous library system befitting the nation's largest city, but the founders also wanted an imposing main branch. A prominent, central site for it was available at the two-block section of Fifth avenue between 40th and 42nd streets, then occupied by the Croton Reservoir, which was obsolete and no longer needed. Dr. John Shaw Billings who was named first director of the New York Public Library seized the opportunity. He knew exactly what he wanted there. His design for the new library became the basis of the landmark building that became the central Research Library (now known as the Humanities and Social Science Library) on Fifth Avenue.[3]
Billings's plan called for a huge reading room on top of seven floors of bookstacks combined with the fastest system for getting books into the hands of those who requested to read them. Following a competition among the city's most famous architects, the relatively unknown firm of Carrère and Hastings was selected to design and construct the new library. The result, regarded as the apex of Beaux-Arts design, was the largest marble structure up to that time in the United States. The cornerstone was laid in May 1902."
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