I hopped off the Megabus Saturday morning at 10:15 AM and walked 14 blocks up 5th Avenue to 42nd Street for a tour of the New York Public Library. Although there were 2 libraries in NYC in 1886, the John Jacob Astor and the James Lenox, neither were a truly public institution, so with a $2.4 million gift from the late governor Samuel J. Tilden, a new building was planned for the city.
A site was chosen - a 2 block area on 5th Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets - then the site of the no longer needed Croton Reservoir. (The reservoir walls can still be seen in the library.) The Beaux-Arts designed building was the largest marble structure in the country at that time.
The main building on 42nd/5th is actually one of four research libraries and not a lending library. There are 82 branch libraries located within the city. Some treasures in the main library include a Gutenberg Bible (owned by James Lenox) and the original Winnie-the-Pooh dolls given by A. A. Milne to his son Christopher Robin.
