EXHIBITION
The Library Moves Uptown:
70 Years at 79th Street
(1937-2007)
Five Books Published in 1937
December 15, 1937
"Change was inevitable, and desirable. Too long the Library had stood for the old-world and quaint in its little backwater of University Place, an eighty-year stay that had been almost twice the length of any of its previous occupancies. The vitality of that enterprise which had started as an idea with six young New Yorkers in 1754 and had survived the Revolution and six succeeding wars, accumulating friends and funds all along the way, was worthy of the renewal which good stewardship had vouchsafed it three times in the past, and now planned again.
But change impending brings unease to hearts that know the tried and dear will never afterward be the same, and it was with relief that we heard in 1936 that the uncertainty at least was over. The Board had bought the 42.2 foot, five story house of Mrs. John Shillito Rogers at 53 East Seventy-ninth Street for $175,000 and contracted with Snead and Company of Jersey City for alterations to cost about $108,000 more. The papers printed the news in May. H.R. [librarian Helen Ruskell] and I went up to extract what promise we could from the handsome, impersonal, grey façade....
Rents being still well in hand, [we] found comfortable apartments not far off, from which we could walk to work. Gradually the neighborhood came to seem familiar, and we began to feel the pleasure of the bright renaissance."
From "Books and People" by Marion King,
Assistant Librarian at the New York Society Library from 1907 to 1953
The Library's New Home
During the early nineteen-thirties, as the city's population moved uptown, so too did many Library members. The trustees' decision to leave 109 University Place, its home for eighty years, upset some long-time subscribers devoted to the Library and the neighborhood. One member hung crepe on a drawing she made of the University Place façade to register grief over the anticipated move. But the Library's future now lay more than sixty blocks north on the rapidly expanding Upper East Side. The Library paid $175,000 for the luxurious former town house of Mr. and Mrs. John Shillito Rogers located at 53 East 79th Street.
The New York architectural firm Trowbridge and Livingston had built the Rogers' home in 1916-17 on the site of two brownstones, numbers 53 and 55. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the building's construction. The New York Times wrote that the exterior of the building "gives an impression of great dignity." Among other notable New York City buildings constructed by Trowbridge and Livingston are the former B. Altman and Company (now home to the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library and the CUNY Graduate Center), the J.P. Morgan building at 23 Wall Street and the Hayden Planetarium.
A generous bequest from Sarah Parker Goodhue given to the Library in memory of her husband, Charles Clarkson Goodhue, made the purchase of the Rogers' home possible. Mrs. Goodhue also left her butler $1,000 on condition that he keep a temperance pledge made during her lifetime. Both Mrs. Goodhue and Goodhue Livingston, the architect, share an ancestor in common - General Matthew Clarkson, who was an aide-de-camp to Benedict Arnold during the Revolution. Clarkson's portrait by the American painter Samuel Lovett Waldo hangs on the staircase leading to the second floor Members' Room.
Documenting the Library's Move
Planning and executing the move took months of hard, often back-breaking, work. After reviewing several bids, the Library chose the Franklin Fireproof Warehouses of Brooklyn to move the Library's collection of 150,000 books at a cost of $8,100. (The Library now has 275,000 volumes in its holdings.)
At University Place, "the most ephemeral and trivial fiction was pulled out and sold." Out-of-date science and medical books were offered to the New York Academy of Medicine. Shelf by shelf the books were dusted, vacuumed, placed in boxes, color coded and numbered. Meanwhile at 79th Street, Snead and Company of Jersey City was overseeing the renovation. The firm pioneered the concept of open stacks in twentieth-century library design. The back half of the building was torn out and converted into twelve tiers of metal stacks. Snead and Company's supervisor, a Dickensian figure of great probity, reported regularly on the progress of the reconstruction to Lewis Spencer Morris, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
On December 15, 1937, Mr. Morris welcomed members and guests to the Library's formal opening in its fifth home since the Library first opened its doors in 1754 in the "Library Room" at City Hall. In his remarks he noted that "the building has been remodeled along modern lines but the atmosphere which has so long characterized [this Library] has been retained."
Views of the Library
After the dust from the reconstruction settled, the Library reopened for business. Many downtown members, including Ruth Draper and Norman Thomas, renewed their subscriptions. Among the new uptown members were Mrs. Chester Dale, Edward Steichen and the Oswald Villards, who lived down the block. Miss Hewitt, who had originally held classes on the top floor of this building for the children of the previous owners, John and Catherine Rogers, also joined. Articles in newspapers and The New Yorker brought in additional members. With the move the cost of an annual subscription went up from $12 to $15.
Frank B. Bigelow, who had been Head Librarian at University Place from 1895 to 1937, retired and moved to Amherst, Massachusetts. His successor was Edith Hall Crowell. Helen Ruskell, who had first come to work at University Place in 1920 as a fresh-faced girl, presided at the front loan desk. Marion King, the Assistant Librarian, sat at the smaller desk with a leather armchair beside it to receive members.
Three years after the Library moved uptown, 109 University Place was torn down to make way for an apartment house.
Exhibition Images
1.
Rogers House, completed in 1918.
A Callery pear tree, which blooms
abundantly in the spring, had been
freshly planted.
(Cornell University Libraries)
2.
Trowbridge and Livingston began
construction on the Rogers’ mansion
in 1916. By early December framing
was in place to the fourth floor.
(Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach
Division of Arts, Prints & Photographs, the New York
Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
3.
A view of 109 University Place, the
Library’s home from 1856 –1937,
by member D. T. Valentine, from the
Manual of the Corporation of the
City of New York.
(Collection of the New York Society Library)
4.
In 1917 Sarah Parker Goodhue
(1828 – 1917) bequeathed the Library
funds that led to the purchase of the
Rogers house in 1936. Charcoal
portrait by Samuel Worcester Rowse.
Collection of the New York Society Library
5.
News of the New York Society Library’s
move uptown after eighty years at
109 University Place was covered in
the April 5, 1937 New York Herald
Tribune and the New York Times.
6.
A portrait of John and Catherine
Rogers taken during their honeymoon
in Florence circa 1906. An ancestor of
John Rogers was a law partner of
Alexander Hamilton.
(Rogers family archives, courtesy of Bard Rogers Hamlen)
7.
“It is spacious, elegant, entirely right,”
Augusta Owen Patterson wrote of the
Rogers’ Regency library (today the
Members’ Room) in American Homes
of Today (1924).
(Photograph by Tebbs.
Collection of the New York Society Library)
8.
Goodhue Livingston (1867–1951)
was a partner in the New York
architectural firm of Trowbridge and
Livingston. One of his ancestors,
Robert R. Livingston, was a founding
member of this Library.
(Photograph of portrait by unknown artist, courtesy of
New York Genealogical and Biographical Society)
9.
A large number of guests, including
former owner, Mrs. John Rogers,
attended the reception and tea marking
the Library’s formal opening on
December 15, 1937.
10.
The Franklin Fireproof Warehouses of
Brooklyn moved the Library’s entire
collection through the spring and fall
of 1937. The move cost $8,100.
11.
In the 1938 annual report, Board
Chairman Lewis Spencer Morris,
praised the staff for “the spirit of
service and cooperation they have
shown during the past year…”
12.
Head Librarian Edith Crowell
protested when an open-air roof
cabaret opened briefly across the
street from the Library.
13.
During the reconstruction there
was some minor confusion about
what Mrs. Rogers could legally
remove from the premises.
14.
The Members’ Room in the newly
opened Library, 1937.
(Collection of The New York Society Library)
The long loan desk of dark carved
oak and the smaller desk were made
to order for the Library’s new home by
Gaylord of Syracuse. Marion King
requested a bell at the main desk to
call the pages.
(Collection of The New York Society Library)
Recent views of the circulation desk
and the staircase leading to the
Assunta, Ignazio, Ada and Romano
Peluso Exhibition Gallery.
(Photographs by James Dow)
15.
Photographs taken soon after the
Rogers moved into 53 East 79th Street.
During their occupancy, the house
was hung with tapestries and chandeliers.
Today the entry hall remains
unchanged as does the second floor
landing, except for the leaded glass
ceiling which was removed.
The Architectural Review, February 1919.
Art & Architecture Collection, Miriam and Ira D.
Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the
New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations
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