New York Public Library Main Branch

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (commonly known as the Main Branch, the 42nd Street Library, or just the New York Public Library) is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The branch, one of four research libraries in the library system, has nine divisions. Four stories of the structure are open to the public. The main entrance steps are at Fifth Avenue at its intersection with East 41st Street. As of 2015^[update], the branch contains an estimated 2.5 million volumes in its stacks. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark, a National Register of Historic Places site, and a New York City designated landmark in the 1960s.

The Main Branch was built after the New York Public Library was formed as a combination of two libraries in the late 1890s. The site, along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, is located directly east of Bryant Park, on the site of the Croton Reservoir. The architectural firm Carrère and Hastings constructed the structure in the Beaux-Arts style, and the structure opened on May 23, 1911. The marble facade of the building contains ornate detailing, and the Fifth Avenue entrance is flanked by a pair of stone lions that serve as the library's icon. The interior of the building contains the Main Reading Room, a space measuring 78 by 297 feet (24 by 91 m) with a 52-foot-high (16 m) ceiling; a Public Catalog Room; and various reading rooms, offices, and art exhibitions.

The Main Branch became popular after its opening and saw four million annual visitors by the 1920s. It formerly contained a circulating library, though the circulating division of the Main Branch moved to the nearby Mid-Manhattan Library in 1970. Additional space for the library's stacks was constructed under adjacent Bryant Park in 1991, and the branch's Main Reading Room was restored in 1998. A major restoration from 2007 to 2011 was underwritten by a $100 million gift from businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman, for whom the branch was subsequently renamed. The branch underwent another expansion starting in 2018. The Main Branch has been featured in many television shows and films.

The consolidation of the Astor and Lenox Libraries into the New York Public Library in 1895, along with a large bequest from Samuel J. Tilden and a donation of $5.2 million from Andrew Carnegie, allowed for the creation of an enormous library system. The libraries had a combined 350,000 items after the merger, which was relatively small compared to other library systems at the time. As a point of civic pride, the New York Public Library's founders wanted an imposing main branch. While the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Fifth Avenue branch were both located on prominent sites facing Central Park in Manhattan, there was no such site available for a main library building; furthermore, most of the city's libraries were either private collections or small branch libraries.

Several sites were considered, including those of the Astor and Lenox Libraries. In March 1896, the trustees of the libraries ultimately chose a new site along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, because it was centrally located between the Astor and Lenox Libraries. At the time, it was occupied by the obsolete Croton Reservoir, remnants of which still exist on the library floor. The library's trustees convinced mayor William L. Strong to give them the reservoir site, after they gave him studies showing that the size of New York City's library collection lagged behind those of many other cities. Dr. John Shaw Billings, who was named the first director of the New York Public Library, had created an early sketch for a massive reading room on top of seven floors of book-stacks, combined with the fastest system for getting books into the hands of those who requested to read them. His design for the new library, though controversial for its time, formed the basis of the Main Branch. Once the Main Branch was opened, the Astor and Lenox Libraries were planned to close, and their functions were planned to be merged into that of the Main Branch.

In May 1897, the New York State Legislature passed a bill allowing the site of the Croton Reservoir to be used for a public library building. The Society of Beaux-Arts Architects hosted an architectural design competition for the library, with two rounds. The rules of the competition's first round were never published, but they were used as the basis for later design competitions. Entrants submitted 88 designs, of which 12 were selected for a semi-finalist round and six went on to a finalist round. About a third of the designs, 29 in total, followed the same design principles outlined in Billings's original sketch. Each of the semifinalist designs were required to include specific architectural features, including limestone walls; a central delivery desk; reading rooms with large windows; and stacks illuminated by sunlight. The six finalists were selected by a jury composed of library trustees and architects. The jury relaxed the requirement that the proposals adhere to a specific floor plan after McKim, Mead & White, which had received the most votes from the jury, nearly withdrew from the competition. All of the finalist designs were in the Beaux-Arts style.

Ultimately, in November 1897, the relatively unknown firm of Carrère and Hastings was selected to design and construct the new library. The jury named the firm of Howard & Cauldwell and McKim, Mead, & White as runners-up. Carrère and Hastings created a model for the future library building, which was exhibited at New York City Hall in 1900. Whether John Mervin Carrère or Thomas S. Hastings contributed more to the design is in dispute, but both architects are honored with busts located at the bottoms of each of Astor Hall's two staircases. In a later interview with The New York Times, Carrère stated that the library would contain "twenty-five or thirty different rooms", each with their own specialty; "eighty-three miles of books" in its stacks; and a general reading room that could fit a thousand guests. During the design process, Hastings had wanted to shift the library building closer to Sixth Avenue, and he also proposed sinking 42nd Street to create a forecourt for the library, but both plans were rejected. The New York City Board of Estimate approved Carrère and Hastings's plans for the library in December 1897.

Construction was delayed by the objections of mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck, who expressed concerns that the city's finances were unstable. As a result, the planned library was delayed for a year. The Board of Estimate authorized a bond measure of $500,000 in May 1899. The next month, contractor Eugene Lentilhon started excavating the Croton Reservoir, and workers began digging through the reservoir's 25-foot-thick (7.6 m) wall. After spending seven weeks tunneling through the wall, Lentilhon determined that the floor of the reservoir could only be demolished using dynamite. Work on the foundation commenced in May 1900, and much of the Croton Reservoir had been excavated by 1901. In November 1900, work was hindered by a water main break that partly flooded the old reservoir. Norcross Brothers received the general contract, although this was initially controversial because the firm was not the lowest bidder. After a private ceremony to mark the start of construction was held in August 1902, a ceremonial cornerstone was laid on November 10, 1902. The cornerstone contained a box of artifacts from the library and the city. The architects awarded the contract for the library's stacks to Snead & Company; for drainage and plumbing to M. J. O'Brien; for interior finishes to the John Peirce Company; and for electric equipment to the Lord Electric Company.