Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Brooklyn Public Library
Pratt Institute Free Library
Few college libraries welcome the general public as Pratt Institute has done. One example is its use of the Dewey Decimal System, essentially the classification standard for public library collections.
This building was one of Pratt's first, beginning construction in 1887. Seriously, you should read its history. Talk about being way ahead of its time!
Ingersoll Building
Two trees grow in Brooklyn.
(L) Plastichrome card by the Manhattan Post Card Company.
(R) Another Plastichrome card shows the grand entrance to the Ingersoll Building. The screen shows favorite characters from American fiction. Shamefully, the only one I'm certain about is Moby Dick.
The pillars look like they're covered by bronze and taupe toile.
Ah, the new library. 'Tis a bit, ah, dramatic.
(But very cool, in a 1958 sort of way.)
So, take a look inside.
Windows '62.
My rods and cones have reverted to the function nature intended.
(L) Mandatory garb for adult patrons: white shirts. Preferably starched.
(R) Childrens' Room. White shirts optional.
Both cards are Plastichrome productions.
Bay Ridge
73rd Street & 2nd Avenue
I'm not certain that this building, at 73rd Street and 2nd Avenue in Bay Ridge, was not a Carnegie Building. Carnegie grants dated from 1901 to 1923, according to the BPL history page. The card was mailed in 1906.
The pictured building is gone, per Google Street View, but at least it has a replacement.
Bedford
Carnegie Library
ca. 1903 grant.
Still in use after a 2000 renovation.
Card by Metropolitan Importing, yet it was printed in the US.
Bushwick
Carnegie Library
Opened 1908 and still in use.
Self-framed card, mailed in 1911.
Flatbush
Carnegie Library.
(L) APC Co. card, mailed in 1915.
(R) This L&F Jackson card, printed in Germany, also is not a very edifying view.
it probably dates between late 1907 and 1917.
Most information about the Flatbush Branch comes from the Historic Districts Council website.
This building started life in 1905, in Classical Revival style: fairly innocuous, designed by R.L. Daus. Then Jack C. Street and John R. Petter got hold of it, presumably in the 1930s.
Poof! a Moderne library. Neither postcard shows the renovation.
Pacific
Carnegie Library
The first Carnegie Library to open in Brooklyn (1904).
This rather frou-frou building was designed by Raymond F. Almirall, and renovated in 1914. It is still in use.
According to L. A. B."
This is right on our corner
Prospect Park (now Park Slope)
Carnegie Library
Still in use but renamed. This is a well-documented Brooklyn Carnegie library, which was restored in 1998 to its full glory. It had three fireplaces, plus some stunning woodwork and glass. It still has its cast iron stacks.
I believe the card was produced by Leighton & Valentine.
Saratoga Branch
Carnegie Library
An R.L. Daus building, opened in 1908, with at least three renovations and additions. It's still in use.
The real photo postcard (RPPC) was mailed to Sweden in 1909. How it made its way back here, I do not know.
South
Carnegie Library
The postcard caption gives the address as 4th Ave. and 51st Street, but also calls it Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, which is a bit confusing.
According to Wikipedia, this was actually the South branch, and was demolished in 1970 for the new Sunset Park branch. It was built in 1905, and designed by Lord & Hewlett.
Williamsburgh (Division Avenue)
Carnegie Library
According to the branch's web page, this Classical Revival building is angled to resemble an open book. Wikipedia has it as the borough's first branch, but it wasn't completed until 1905.
The postcard's printer is unknown, but it was made in Germany with a divided back.