The Ottendorfer Branch Library is a particularly interesting and personal interpretation of the Queen Anne style by the German-born architect William Schickel. The use of terra-cotta on the facade was innovative when the building was constructed.
The library in combination with the adjoining Polyclinic was intended to “promote the bodily and mental health” of immigrants in New York city. The Ottendorfer is the oldest branch in the New York Public Library system still in its original building and one of the oldest buildings in the city designed specifically as a public library.