New York Public Library Muhlenberg Branch
209-211 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
Year(s) built: 1906
Year opened: 1906
Architect(s): Carrere and Hastings
Builder(s): E.E. Paul Company
Status: Library, New York City individual landmark
Designed by Carrere and Hastings in 1906, the Muhlenberg Branch was one of fourteen Carnegie libraries the preeminent architectural firm would build, in addition to designing the Main Building of The New York Public Library. The Muhlenberg Branch is the eleventh of twenty Carnegie branch libraries built in Manhattan and the twenty-eighth of sixty-seven throughout the whole city.
The building has several characteristics of the urban Carnegie library type. It has a vertical plan, a classically-inspired style (a simplified Beaux-Arts model that was the preferred style for public structures in the early-Twentieth Century), three stories, an arched entrance that is not central, ornamental stone masonry, and tall, large arched windows on the first floor that allow an abundance of light into a relatively simple interior.
The Muhlenberg Branch is a New York City Individual Landmark and continues to operate as a branch of the New York Public Library.
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Return to view the full list of Manhattan Carnegie Libraries:
http://hdc.org/hdc-across-nyc/manhattan/carnegie-libraries/muhlenberg-branch