page_title: New York Public Library Main Branch
section_title: 1960s through 1990s
hierarchical_section_title: New York Public Library Main Branch / History / 20th-century growth / 1960s through 1990s
caption_attribution_description: The Mid-Manhattan Library at 453 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building dates from 1915. (Source: NYC GIS map)
context_page_description: The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system and a landmark in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The branch, one of four research libraries in the library system, contains nine separate divisions. The structure contains four stories open to the public. The main entrance steps are at Fifth Avenue at its intersection with East 41st Street. As of 2015, the branch contains an estimated 2.5 million volumes in its stacks. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark, a National Register of Historic Places site, and a New York City designated landmark in the 1960s.
  The Main Branch was built after the New York Public Library was formed as a combination of two libraries in the late 1890s. The site, along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, is located directly east of Bryant Park, on the site of the Croton Reservoir. The architectural firm Carrère and Hastings constructed the structure in the Beaux-Arts style, and the structure opened on May 23, 1911.
context_section_description: Minor repairs at the Main Branch occurred during the 1960s. The city government allocated money for the installation of fire sprinklers in the main branch's stacks in 1960. In 1964 contracts were awarded for the installation of a new floor level above the south corridor on the first floor, as well as for replacement of the skylights. By the mid-1960s, the branch contained 7 million volumes and had outgrown its 88 miles (142 km) of stacks.
  The circulating facilities at the Main Branch continued to grow, and in 1961, the New York Public Library convened a group of six librarians to look for a new facility for the circulating department. The library bought the Arnold Constable & Company department store at 8 East 40th Street, at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 40th Street across from the Main Branch. The Main Branch's circulating collection was moved to the Mid-Manhattan Library in 1970.
  During the 1970s, the New York Public Library as a whole experienced financial troubles, which were exacerbated by the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis. As a cost-cutting measure, in 1970, the library decided to close the Main Branch during Sundays and holidays. The library also closed the Main Branch's science and technology division in late 1971 to save money, but private funds allowed the division to reopen in January 1972. The lions in front of the Main Branch's main entrance were restored in 1975.
  The Catalog Room was restored starting in 1983. Ten million catalog cards, many of which were tattered, were replaced with photocopies that had been created over six years at a cost of $3.3 million. The room was subsequently renamed for Bill Blass, the fashion designer, who gave $10 million to the New York Public Library in 1994. Other divisions were added to the Main Branch during the 1980s. These included the Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle in 1986, and the Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs in 1987.
  In the late 1980s, the New York Public Library decided to expand the Main Branch's stacks to the west, underneath Bryant Park. The project was originally estimated to cost $21.6 million and would be the largest expansion project in the Main Branch's history. It was approved by the city's Art Commission in January 1987, and construction on the stacks started in July 1988. The expansion required that Bryant Park be closed to the public and then excavated, but because the park had grown dilapidated over the years, the stack-expansion project was seen as an opportunity to rebuild the park. The library added more than 120,000 square feet (11,000 m²) of storage space and 84 miles (135 km) of bookshelves under Bryant Park, doubling the length of the stacks in the Main Branch. The new stacks were connected to the Main Branch via a 120-foot (37 m) tunnel. Once the underground facilities were completed, Bryant Park was completely rebuilt, with 2.5 or 6 feet (0.76 or 1.83 m) of earth between the park surface and the storage facility's ceiling. The extension was opened in September 1991 at a cost of $24 million; however, it only included one of two planned levels of stacks. Bryant Park was reopened in mid-1992 after a three-year renovation.
  The Main Reading Room was closed in July 1997 for renovations. It was restored over a sixteen-month period and reopened in November 1998. The restoration entailed the cleaning and repainting of the ceiling, cleaning the windows, refinishing of the wood, and removal of partitions within the room, as well as replacing sixty desk lamps and installing energy-efficient window panes. It was renamed the Rose Main Reading Room, after the children of a benefactor who had given $15 million toward the renovation. Also in 1998, the New York State government allocated funding for the Main Branch to install technology services such as computers. The bungalow in the Library's South Court was taken apart the same year.
caption: The Mid-Manhattan Library, which opened in 1970 and replaced the circulating library at the Main Branch
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