The Jefferson Market Library on 6th Avenue and 10th Street is one of the city's most remarkable buildings. It's an assemblage resembling Bavaria's Neuschwanstein castle - stained glass windows, steeply sloping roofs, gables, turrets, Venetian Gothic embellishments, and an intricate tower and clock. Built 1874-77 (Vaux and Withers, architects) it served as a courthouse with an adjoining prison and market until 1945. A wood fire lookout tower (later replaced with the existing clock tower) was the first building on the site, built in 1833. It was located in the center of the merchants sheds of the Jefferson Market. The jail and market were torn down in 1927, replaced with the high-rise Women's House of Detention, which remained until 1974. Vacant from 1958, local residents saved and restored the structure and persuaded the city to use it as a branch of the New York Public Library, which opened in 1967. Read the entire story here. The exterior of the Library is currently undergoing renovation. I had hoped to photograph the building afterwards. However, with all the political squabble, funding issues and resultant delays, I chose to shoot the library as best I could (avoiding scaffolding) rather than wait until the project is completed ...
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Jefferson Market Library
The Jefferson Market Library on 6th Avenue and 10th Street is one of the city's most remarkable buildings. It's an assemblage resembling Bavaria's Neuschwanstein castle - stained glass windows, steeply sloping roofs, gables, turrets, Venetian Gothic embellishments, and an intricate tower and clock. Built 1874-77 (Vaux and Withers, architects) it served as a courthouse with an adjoining prison and market until 1945. A wood fire lookout tower (later replaced with the existing clock tower) was the first building on the site, built in 1833. It was located in the center of the merchants sheds of the Jefferson Market. The jail and market were torn down in 1927, replaced with the high-rise Women's House of Detention, which remained until 1974. Vacant from 1958, local residents saved and restored the structure and persuaded the city to use it as a branch of the New York Public Library, which opened in 1967. Read the entire story here. The exterior of the Library is currently undergoing renovation. I had hoped to photograph the building afterwards. However, with all the political squabble, funding issues and resultant delays, I chose to shoot the library as best I could (avoiding scaffolding) rather than wait until the project is completed ...
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5 comments:
Firstly, allow me compliment you on being the author of a truly wonderful blog. It's colourful (but not gaudy), snappy (but not superficial), and informative (but not dauntingly so). I like the fact that, where possible, you always provide links related to your stories - and sometimes bonus photos, too. Not many other Daily Photo participants are as thorough, or as generous - or, for that matter, have such a readable "voice".
Secondly, thank you for showing me so many of New York's other faces. I have only visited your city a handful of times, but I now realise that, in order to be able to say I have really been there, I will need to make plans for a stay of several months - or longer - sometime in the future.
Thirdly, I was wondering if you would mind me using one of your photos for a special I have coming up on my own blog, which is a kind of semiological cabinet of curiosities, composed entirely of visual and textual quotations. To be specific, on the "signature day" of every month (e.g. the eleventh of November, the twelfth of December, etc.) I post the relevant number of images. Soon I intend publishing one devoted to the subject of skulls. Your photo of The Evolution Store display would be perfect for this entry. Please feel free to check my blog out before agreeing (or refusing).
Again, well done and thanks.
I've always been amazed by this odd architecture, so atypical in NYC... Looks like a haunted castle :)
Louis,
It's fine to use my photos on a public blog. Just credit me and give a link to NewYorkDailyPhoto.com
Brian
Thanks, Brian.
Louis
I love this library branch
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