PLANS FOR NEW BUILDING EXPEDITED 397 the donor “a print1 from an old Map of the City of New York with a suitable memorandum on the back of the frame." The original picture was skilfully “restored" in 1903, at the studio of H. A. Hammond Smith in Tenth street, and to-day, sealed under glass, figures conspicuously in the adornment of the main hall. It is now seasonable to return to the long-deferred preparations for a new building. Amid all the distractions of these trying years, the friends of the Library had kept before them a vision of the new home, finished and in order, as a veritable beacon flame of hope. As already stated, the Society Library had acquired from the Athenæum, by deed of transfer, signed May 16, 1838, its portion of the premises on the corner of Broadway and Leonard street. It will also be recalled that this agreement was the initial act of the Trustees chosen at the fiercely contested election of 1838.2 Closely allied to that move, another undertaking pledged by the new board to push to completion was the erection of the contemplated building. The work was begun with energy and despatch. On May 26th the Trustees unanimously adopted a report of the committee in charge, consisting of A. Robertson Rodgers, chairman, Professor Moore, Judge Inglis and Messrs. G. C. Verplanck and W. S. Johnson. This report, together with "accompanying plans and elevations,"-not copied in the minutes,-had been rendered three days before, "after a consultation with several gentlemen of taste and experience." Resolutions passed August 1st authorized an edifice "of brick with brown Stone dressings," and a disposal of 1 Reproduced in D. T. Valentine's Manual for 1849. 2 See pp. 349-357. the Townsend mortgage (on the old Nassau Street building), "or a loan on the pledge thereof," to raise needed funds. Finally, on November 23d, two contracts were ordered executed, the one with Frederic Diaper, architect, and the other with masons and carpenters. At the end of the official year, in April, 1839, the committee submitted a fuller statement, announcing that $10,000 had been spent as "the first payment due in the progress of the Work." The report closes with little purrings of satisfaction, offering in explanation a recent letter from the architect. By this it appears that the walls were then at the height of one story, that "the brick piers &c" were "ready to receive the iron columns in the lecture room," and that "the whole of the work hitherto" had been "executed in a sound, workmanlike manner, with materials of the best quality." As no demonstration was made at the annual election in 1839, the board went steadily on in its course, promptly reappointing the building committee. Little was reported, however, until December, when the Library Committee was "authorized to apply to Mr Verplanck to deliver an address on the removal of the Library to the new building in Broadway, and to make such other arrangements, for the same occasion, as they may deem proper." But, as in the case of the "Oration" requested of General Jacob Morton on the opening of the first building in 1795, no further allusion to any dedicatory exercises do the minutes vouchsafe.2 1 The successors to General Laight and Mr. Kent-Messrs. Rufus L. Lord and Henry Brevoort, Jr.were proposed by the board and were hence in sympathy with current policies. 2 The corner-stone was laid Sept. 19, 1838, according to memoranda deposited therein by the Librarian, Philip Forbes. The box with its charred contents came to light in 1867, when the building, then owned by the Appleton Publishing Co., was demolished in consequence of fire. FIRE IN THE NEW EDIFICE 399 Instead, to the great concern of the friends of the Library, a serious set-back was met with in a fire in January, 1840, just as the structure was nearing completion. A letter from the architect estimated the damage at $1726, chiefly to floors and plastering, in consequence of which he predicted a delay of from six to eight weeks. Early in March, however, repairs had so advanced that a formal visit of inspection was paid by several of the board, Messrs. Bancker, Brevoort, Harison, Lawrence, Rodgers and Seymour, the records being mute as to their impressions. The long-anticipated occupation of the new abode would seem nigh at hand from a resolution of March 17th, directing the removal of the collection to the building, and closing the institution for the interim. Nevertheless, one more election took place in the dismantled Mechanics' Society building at 12 Chambers street, where the Library had maintained an indifferent existence for a little over four years. That the migration had then begun is evident from an editorial notice in the American for April 30, 1840, which, in mentioning the removal as taking place, lets fall a few words of descriptive interest. "The rooms," it says, “like the exterior, are chaste in style, spacious in extent, and [the building] now embraces a reading-room and a lecture On May 13, 1840, the first meeting of the Trustees was held amid the fresh surroundings, and was duly signalized in the minutes as convened "pursuant to notice at the New Library Building corner of Broadway The Messrs. Appleton courteously sent to the Library the few remaining articles, including water-soaked and scorched newspapers of the day, a copy of the Catalogue of 1838 and some personal notes of Mr. Forbes. and Leonard Street." That friends of the Library were not alone in their satisfaction over the finished product of patient and careful planning is amply vouched for in journals and manuals of the day, as well as by many a word in personal reminiscence of its dignified and impressive appearance. One or two such appreciative extracts will be of interest. For example, Ruggles' "Picture of New York in 1846" says the Society Library was "a conspicuous and beautiful edifice, of the Ionic order, of brown freestone," and declares its apartments "unsurpassed for architectural beauty by any in the United States." Equally enthusiastic in its praise is the verdict of "New-York: Past, Present, and Future"1: This building, 100 feet long by 60 wide, is constructed of finelycut brown sand stone, and presents on Broadway a chaste façade of Ionic columns. On passing the structure, the eye is arrested by its bold and massive front, while the beauty of its proportions, and its highly finished masonry, elicit the approbation of good taste and critical observation. For a sympathetic description of the interior of the building, the following extract from the New Yorker of November 28, 1840, will prove illuminating: THE NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY has lately been re-opened in its new and beautiful edifice . . . a new ornament of our principal avenue. The basement floor is divided into stores and offices. A spacious hall occupies the middle of the building. The visitor enters this and ascends a broad flight of stairs, which leads to the reading room in the rear. This is a lofty and well proportioned apartment, with windows at each end, and in it are four commodious tables covered with rich food for the literary appetite. One contains the city journals; another Published in 1849 by E. Porter Belden, M.A., projector of the famous "Model" of the city. 1 |