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Tag: nypl

Beyond the Village and Back: The Juilliard School

The Juilliard School is one of the world’s most respected schools for the performing arts. Ensconced in its Lincoln Center home for more than 50 years, the school can boast an impressive list of alumni among actors, musicians, playwrights, and dancers: William Hurt, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin, Adam Driver, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams (roommates in the 1970s), to name a few. And even though Juilliard is best known as an Upper West Side school, its origins in Greenwich Village in the early 20th century tie it in with an even older and more historic local institution.

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Juilliard School and Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

How the New York Public Library got its start in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo

Founded on May 23, 1895, the New York Public Library (NYPL) is the largest municipal library in the world, with 53 million items and 92 locations across Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. It’s also the steward of some of New York’s greatest landmarks, reflecting a century and a quarter of Gotham’s history, and in […]

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A Landmark Library Lives On

It might be temporarily closed for renovations, but when the Ottendorfer Branch of the New York Public Library opened in 1884 it was New York City’s first free public library, and was designated a New York City landmark on September 20, 1977.  

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    Beyond the Village and Back: “Becoming Visible” and The Legacy of Stonewall at the NYPL

    Our Beyond the Village and Back series takes a look at great landmarks in New York City outside of our neighborhoods, finding the sometimes hidden connection to the Village. Today we take a slightly unorthodox approach of looking back at a groundbreaking exhibit which took place on June 18, 1994 at one of our city’s most beloved […]

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    Local Landmark: Tompkins Square Library

    Note: This is an updated version of a post originally written by Drew Durniak  Since it opened on December 1, 1904, the Tompkins Square Branch of the New York Public Library has served as an important community resource.  Situated on East 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, the building itself was designated an […]

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      Landmark Designation of the Ottendorfer Library 1st Floor Interior

      On August 11, 1981, the interior first floor of the Ottendorfer Library received landmark designation from the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission. The building is a prime example of work commissioned for and utilized by the primarily German population of the late 19th and early 20th century, when the East Village was known as […]

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      Fifth Avenue and 12th Street, Then & Now

      Today, the building that houses the Salmagundi Club at 47 Fifth Avenue is a bit of an odd duck. At four-and-a-half stories, the 1853 Italianate style rowhouse is sandwiched by taller apartment buildings on either side. To someone walking by, the stately old brownstone may almost look like the Little House from the Stuart Little […]

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      Squatters of the Depression

      As the city’s and nation’s economy works through its slow recovery, the New York public library reminds us how the last great national economic crisis affected our city. Though we commonly recall images of Depression-era squatters in Hoovervilles  in Central Park, various temporary encampments sprouted throughout the city during the 1930s — many of them […]

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      An Illustrated Trip Down Broadway

      We recently highlighted the marvelous illustration work of James Gulliver Hancock as he continues in his attempt to draw all the buildings in New York. This week, we thought we’d take a look at a much earlier attempt at cataloging the city – a great set of illustrations of Broadway from Bowling Green to 59th […]

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