The Lenox Library
One of the cornerstones upon which the present New York Public Library was built the Lenox Library has a long and interesting history. The brief paragraph below was lifted from the present NYPL site:
New York's other principal library during this time was founded by James Lenox and consisted primarily of his personal collection of rare books (which included the first Gutenberg Bible to come to the New World), manuscripts, and Americana. Located on the site of the present Frick Collection, the Lenox Library was intended primarily for bibliophiles and scholars. While use was free of charge, tickets of admission were required.
Phyllis Dain, in The New York Public Library: A History of its Founding and Early Years (NY: NYPL, Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations, 1972) devotes about 5 pages (10-16) to the Lenox Library, quoting briefly from the Report.
The article in the Report (946-950) is part of a larger article about the libraries of New York City written by one O.C. Gardiner. Gardiner is quite taken with the grandeur of it all:
It fronts on Fifth avenue, and covers the entire block of 200 feet between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets, with a depth of 125 feet. While not designed upon any distinct order of architecture, as the Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian, it is simple, classic, and grand in the mass. It is built of white Lockport limestone, or marble, finely polished, and embraces a central building with two projecting wings, the object being to secure all the light possible for the library rooms and galleries. The building is 192 feet parallel to the avenue, and 114 feet deep, with a front elevation of 105 feet. The central part of the edifice for a space of 96 feet is set back 42 feet from the front line, thus forming a courtyard 42 by 96 feet, with a flight of steps to the front entrance. The main entrance from the street is through two massive gateways and this court.
And on for several more paragraphs of architectural rhapsodizing.
The library is not included in anything as tawdry as the statistical section of the report. However Gardiner reckons it at around 15,000 volumes at the time. Phyllis Dain uses the figure of 20,000 volumes (page 11) although I think she may be referring to the size at Lenox's death in 1880. Dain's take on Lenox the person is a: "...dour and distant bachelor...." She notes that the architect for the building was Richard Morris Hunt, a distinguished designer of the time.
The library as we see it below existed until 1912 when it was sold to the steel magnate Henry Clay Frick for $4,000,000. According to Dain (340-341) the sale was complicated by a restriction limiting the property to library use. In any case Frick was not impressed with all the Lockport limestone, had the building torn down and replaced with the building that currently houses the Frick Collection of art. Those robber barons had serious money to burn.
Here's a link to the American Memory photo. According to LC this was taken between 1900-1906.
The Lenox Library, 1871-1913
