Hamilton Grange Branch of the New York Public Library

History and architecture

The Hamilton Grange Branch Library, built by McKim, Mead & White in 1905-6 in the style of the Italian Renaissance, has the true character of a Florentine palazzo. This three-story stone building shows The sensitivity to proportion, rotation of elements and scale, which is found hi the best examples of the style. Order and unity pervade a composition which in its major architectural elements is quite dynamic.

Characteristic of the style, the openings arc the major elements. The openings are graded from 'he targe, round arched door and windows of the first floor, to the rectangular, pedimented windows of the second story, to the smaller, evenly spaced windows of the third story. There are narrow windows between the larger ones, which also are aligned one above the other, but they are graduated the opposite way: from smallest at the first* story to nicest at the third.

These opposing gradations work together to set up the dominant up-and-down movement across the facade. Countering that movement is the fact that the heavier rustication at the first floor gives a solidity to the base and the fact that the second and third story windows are resting on band courses which are emphatically horizontal .

The composition is unified by the all-over rustication and by the refined detail which is carried over the entire facade. The bronze lamps, the grities on the small windows of the first story, the lace-patterned fence, are well balanced by the decorated panels above the small second story windows, end the frieze with fleur-de-lis ornaments.

The composition is symmetrically ordered. This is emphasized by the large escutcheon on the keystone above the central entrance, bearing the seal of the City of New York. lt is further emphasized by the use of an arched pediment over the central second floor window, instead of the triangular pediments which surmount the two windows at either side. The inscription, New York Public Library", centered on the frieze completes the central emphasis at the cornice level.

This library was one of sixty-five branches built with funds contributed by Andrew Carnegie as part of the program to develop a branch library circulating system. Built by one of New York's most prominent architectural firms, as many of these branches were, the Hamilton Grange Branch Library is a beautiful example of the grand style applied to a small building.