All Places

In 1903, the Williamsburgh Library became the first Carnegie library built in Brooklyn. The 26,000 square-foot Classical Revival building featured a central delivery desk, radially arranged stacks, wood wainscoting and fireplaces. The Library was renovated in 1955, and again in 2003-2004. In 2006, the branch became a designated landmark of New York City. Read more...

The two-story, Tudor Revival Washington Irving branch opened in 1923 — the 21st and last Carnegie library built in Brooklyn. Library specialist Edward L. Tilton designed it with a unique gabled roof. Known as “Irving Branch” until 1944, the library was renovated in 1960 and 1986, when the collection was arranged in a “merchandising” format to encourage people to browse. Read more...

First opened in a storefront on Nassau and Bridge streets in 1900, the predecessor to Walt Whitman branch, formerly called “City Park Branch”, moved into the ground floor of a tenement house. In 1908, the present-day Classical Revival Carnegie library opened. The branch had a significant collection on naval architecture and science for workers at the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard. Read more...

Ulmer Park Library opened as a sub-Library in 1951, and within five years grew into a full library. The library moved to its current location in 1963. The library houses a large Russian and Chinese book collection. In 1988, it became the first BPL library to implement computer-networked circulation.   Read more...

Originally called South branch this Classical Revival Carnegie library opened in 1905. Declared obsolete in 1970, the graceful brick and stone building was demolished. Sunset Park branch built on the same site opened in 1972. In a major renovation in 1998, a new glass-brick facade was installed.   Read more...

Stone Avenue opened in 1914 as the Brownsville Children’s Library, the world’s first public library devoted to children. In the Arts and Crafts style, whimsical details include the Rookwood storybook fireplace tiles and rabbit-head finials on carved wooden benches. In his classic memoir, Walker in the City, literary critic Alfred Kazin recalls the library “where I read my way year Read more...

When Spring Creek Branch opened in 1977, fiscal austerity meant limited hours and a staff shared with the Canarsie Branch. Now fully staffed, the single-story, 7,500-square-foot library was designed as a low-cost, energy-efficient building, providing six-day service to a community living in four housing developments and Starrett City.   Read more...