The predecessor to New Lots Branch was a community library organized in 1942 by the Women’s Club of the East New York “Y.” It became part of Brooklyn Public Library in 1949, when the branch opened in storefront on New Lots Avenue. By 1957, the library had outgrown those quarters and it moved to a new, two-story building, designed by Pomerance and Breines. The library site is thought to be a Revolutionary-era burial ground, containing the remains of soldiers, slaves, and English officers.
