{"nrhp_refnum":"79001607","name":"Ottendorfer Public Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital","other_names":["Ottendorfer Public Library and German Dispensary"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"135 and 137 2nd Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.729771259000074,"lon":-73.98711567299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-07-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Education","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two adjoining three-story brick and terra-cotta buildings at 135 and 137 Second Avenue on Manhattan's Lower East Side: the Ottendorfer Library and the Stuyvesant Polyclinic (formerly the German Dispensary), built in 1883-1884 and designed by William Schickel.","why_significant":"The buildings are significant for their architectural quality and their link to 19th-century German-American philanthropy. The dispensary is an ornate neo-Italian Renaissance design with innovative terra-cotta ornament and portrait busts of physicians and scientists, while the library is an individual Queen Anne interpretation. The library is the oldest branch library in Manhattan, and both buildings were gifts of Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer to the German community.","narrative":"Two neighboring buildings on Second Avenue in Manhattan's Lower East Side were built together in 1883-1884 to a design by German-born architect William Schickel. One housed the German Dispensary, later the Stuyvesant Polyclinic, and the other the Ottendorfer Library. Both were gifts of Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer, German-American newspaper publishers who wanted to serve the physical and mental well-being of the neighborhood's German immigrants. The dispensary is an ornate neo-Italian Renaissance building with molded terra-cotta ornament, including portrait busts of Hippocrates, Galen, Harvey and other medical and scientific figures. The library, in red Philadelphia pressed brick with terra-cotta trim, blends Queen Anne and Renaissance elements and keeps a largely intact interior with iron stacks. It is the oldest branch library in Manhattan and one of the earliest buildings in the city designed as a public library. The dispensary provided free care to the needy and continued as a clinic into the late twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"1883-1884","architect_builder":"William Schickel","architectural_style":"Neo-Italian Renaissance (Polyclinic); Queen Anne (Library)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Both buildings are in good condition. The library's first floor is in use, its second floor is not in use, and the superintendent occupies the third. In the polyclinic most upper-floor rooms are empty, with only two third-floor offices in use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.586135-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/79001607.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001607/48b41ca0a2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001607/48b41ca0a2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Alex Lozupone","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loz_ottenF.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Alex Lozupone</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loz_ottenF.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319810","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottendorfer_Public_Library_and_Stuyvesant_Polyclinic_Hospital","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110315829"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/ottendorfer-public-library-and-stuyvesant-polyclinic-hospital-79001607/"}