{"nrhp_refnum":"82003386","name":"New York Public Library","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"222 E. 79th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.77381965600006,"lon":-73.95646742499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-07-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Yorkville Branch of the New York Public Library, a three-story limestone Italian Renaissance library building at 222 East 79th Street in Manhattan, designed by James Brown Lord in 1902.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of New York's most elegant adaptations of the Palladian style to a modern public building and one of few examples of this phase of Italian Renaissance architecture in the city. It was the first library built with Andrew Carnegie's $5,200,000 gift for sixty-five branch libraries, and it was among the last works of architect James Brown Lord.","narrative":"Located on the south side of East 79th Street in Manhattan, the Yorkville Branch library is a three-story limestone building designed in 1902 by architect James Brown Lord. Its symmetrical facade has three bays, round-arched openings in rusticated stone with lion-head keystones, a Greek fret belt course, Ionic columns between pedimented windows, and a balustraded entablature, all drawn from Palladian motifs. Inside, modernization brought new lighting, ceiling tiles and check-out desks, but original Tuscan columns and a three-story staircase with its decorative iron railing and wooden banisters remain. The branch matters for its architecture, as one of the city's finest Palladian public buildings and one of Lord's last works before his death in 1902. It also holds a place in educational history as the first library built from Andrew Carnegie's gift of $5,200,000 for sixty-five branches. It opened on December 13, 1902, with a speech by Carnegie.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"James Brown Lord","architectural_style":"Italian Renaissance (Palladian)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied and in use as a library; exterior intact, interior modernized with new lighting, ceilings, desks and partitions.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.260524-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/82003386.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003386/043c7cc0bb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003386/043c7cc0bb-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Jim.henderson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NYPL_E79_jeh.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Jim.henderson</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NYPL_E79_jeh.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319774","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkville_Library","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14707084"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/new-york-public-library-82003386/"}