E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
October 2014, Volume 11, Number 3
In This Issue:
- The History and Endurance of New York City’s Carnegie and Branch Libraries
- Taming Manhattan: An Illustrated Book Talk
- Six to Celebrate 2015 Applications
The History and Endurance of New York City’s Carnegie and Branch Libraries- A Lecture
67th Street Branch, first floor interior, circulation room, n.d. (New York Public Library)
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 5:30 PM
Yorkville Branch of the New York Public Library
(the very first Carnegie Library built in New York City!)
222 East 79th Street (between Second & Third Avenues)
Join the Historic Districts Council for a presentation on the history of New York City’s Carnegie and branch libraries and their endurance into the present.
In 1899, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated the funds which would build 67 architecturally distinctive libraries in the five boroughs between 1901 and 1923. These buildings, of which 54 still function today as libraries, have been community landmarks ever since. Together with the more recently built branch libraries, and the famous main branches, they make up the three library systems that serve the dynamic population of New York City.
Dr. Jeffrey Kroessler, author of Lighting the Way: A Centennial History of the Queens Borough Public Library, 1896-1996, will discuss the early history of the Carnegie and branch libraries, including their philanthropic origins, purposeful locations, and intended neighborhood functions, as well as their endurance into the 21st century.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating will happen on a first come, first serve basis.
If you have any questions, please contact Brigid Harmon at [email protected] or 212-614-9107
http://hdc.org/featured/new-york-citys-carnegie-branch-libraries-lecture
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Taming Manhattan: An Illustrated Book Talk
Tuesday, November 25, 2014 6:00 PM
Neighborhood Preservation Center
Join former HDC staffer and Portland State University Professor Catherine McNeur as she discusses her recently published book Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City.
Taming Manhattan details the environmental history of the city in the years before and during the Civil War, when pigs roamed the streets and cows foraged in the Battery. As city blocks encroached on farmland and undeveloped space to accommodate an exploding population, prosperous New Yorkers and their poorer neighbors developed very different ideas about what the city environment should contain. This presentation will focus on nineteenth-century New York City’s long forgotten shantytowns, the people living in the communities, and how outsiders viewed the architecture and communities developing on the metropolitan periphery.
This program is free, but reservations are required as space is limited.
To RSVP please contact Brigid Harmon at [email protected] or 212-614-9107
http://hdc.org/featured/taming-manhattan-illustrated-book-talk
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Six to Celebrate 2015 Application
Deadline for nominations is December 1, 2014, and the Six to Celebrate will be announced in early 2015.
The purpose of this program is to provide strategic resources to neighborhood groups at a critical moment so that they can reach their preservation goals. The program will help community activists learn to use tools such as documentation, research, zoning, landmarking, publicity, and public outreach to advance local preservation campaigns. The selected groups will receive HDC’s hands-on help strategizing and implementing all aspects of their efforts over the course of the 2014 calendar year, as well as our continued support in the years to come.
Since beginning this program in 2011, HDC has been able to help Six to Celebrate groups create two new National Register districts (the Bowery and Far Rockaway Bungalows) and two New York City historic districts (Bedford Stuyvesant and the East Village) with many others still in the works in all five boroughs (Bedford, Gowanus, Harrison Street, Port Morris, and Van Cortland Village). We have also assisted in leveraging more than $40,000 in private and public grants for these community-driven projects. Neighborhoods selected also get professionally-designed websites and illustrated walking tour brochures.
Click here to download the application
Please mail the application along with all requested supplemental materials.
SEND TO:
Six to Celebrate
Historic Districts Council
232 East 11th Street
New York, New York 10003