Crown Heights History: Library on Eastern Parkway and Schenectady, the Quietest Building You Never Walked Into
This series on Crown Heights History has been compiled by Instagram account @crownheightshistory, a born and raised Crown Heightser, and shows some of the ongoing research taking place.
Thank you to our dear contributor for this article.
The Eastern Parkway Branch Library, located at 1044 Eastern Parkway, was designed by Raymond Almirall (who designed many other Brooklyn libraries) and built with funds donated by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie who funded over 2500 public libraries worldwide, provided the cities would provide land for the institutions to be built and taxpayers voted to finance the maintenance of these libraries.
The branch opened on July 7, 1914. It is a two-story medium-sized library (12,250 square feet) and was designed with a classical limestone façade with large arched windows and entrance portal, and has been renovated in 1951, 1969, 1975 & 2016.
The Eastern Parkway Branch Library became one of the most heavily used in the whole Brooklyn Public Library system, vying for the lead in total circulation with the flagship Flatbush branch for many years.
It also has wifi.
(Pictures are from mainly from 1915, and 2nd to last picture of building right across the street of the library)
leah marmulszteyn
why do you say “you never walked into “? I did when i was young-er
History
Thank you for your comment. History comes from two words his-and- story. There is always a story, and from that story, we learn about where we come from and where we are going. Et al.
In fact, the reality of how often people actually visit this building, well, the proof is in the putting in fact. If you remember visiting the library, that shows how often you actually went or how rarely?