"The Gould Memorial Library in the Bronx may be the most famous building in New York City that you’ve never heard of. Designed by Stanford White and modeled on the Pantheon, the Gould Memorial Library was the center piece of New York University’s University Heights Campus, located along 184th Street in the Bronx... The Gould Memorial Library commemorated Jay Gould. Helen Gould’s donation to name the library in memory of her father appears to have been an attempt to rehabilitate his public image. Gould was in talks with MacCracken to donate funds to support engineering at NYU, but these plans were unfinalized when Gould died. The grand, opulent, and evocative architecture of the classical past and European culture, would have been suitable for Gould, who was buried in a lavish, Ionic temple in Woodlawn Cemetery, in the Bronx. Together the library and its doors celebrated the lives and achievements of two great, but flawed, men." For more on the Library, check out this profile by Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

Gould Memorial Library ca. 1905 The Gould Memorial Library and Hall of Fame are Beaux Arts Landmarks designed by Stanford White in the late 1890s. These structures were part of the undergraduate campus of New York University from 1900-1973. The site is now the campus for Bronx Community College. The library and Hall of Fame were designated City Landmarks in 1966, with the library interior following in 1981. The interior of the library is richly decorated in marble, stone, mosaic, wood and bronze and features Tiffany glass. The Hall of Fame is a colonnade with busts of noted scientists, writers, politicians and many other important American figures.

University Avenue, west side, south from Fordham Road, ca 1913. In the late 1920s this streetscape would be replaced with St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church (near the corner) and brick apartment houses further south on the block.

New York University, Delta Upsilon Fraternity, ca. 1905. In 1894 New York University moved much of their undergraduate activities to the Bronx campus, to alleviate overcrowding downtown. NYU sold off the Bronx property to the City University of New York in 1973.

St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, 1937. The Roman Catholic parish of St. Nicholas of Tolentine was founded by Augustinian friars in 1906. After years of worship in smaller structures, work on the current Collegiate Gothic church, designed by Delaney, O'Connor & Schultz, began in 1927. The so-called “lower church” was completed in 1928, but work continued on the upper section of the building into the 1950s. The completed church was consecrated in 1957.

Stanford White Memorial bronze doors at the Gould Memorial Library.

“West Fordham Road, west from Hampden Place, towards the University Heights Bridge across the Harlem River, linking the Bronx with West 207th Street, Manhattan. ln the center of the view is shown the University Heights (Fordham Heights) station of the New York and Putnam division of the New York Central Railroad, at the S.W. corner of Harlem River Terrace. Across the bridge, in the background, is the borough of Manhattan. About 1917.” The University Heights Station opened during the 1870s, when it served the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad. The street level station was removed in 1975, 19 years after the completion of the Major Deegan Expressway. Today, 262 West Fordham Road stands at the corner of Hampden Place.

University Heights Presbyterian Church, 1938. The University Heights Presbyterian congregation dates to a Sunday school established in 1893, to serve the growing community associated with the New York University campus then under construction. Henry Mitchell MacCracken, the NYU chancellor who led University Heights development, was himself a church minister. Construction on the current sanctuary was completed in 1907, with the first mass said on Christmas Day.

The Gould Memorial Library and Hall of Fame are Beaux Arts Landmarks designed by Stanford White in the late 1890s.

Loring Andrews House, 1938. Built around 1880, this was originally the home of William Loring Andrews, a leather merchant, author, publisher, collector of rare books, and the first librarian of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (of which he was a trustee). According to photographer P.L. Sperr, an 1893 map lists the building as the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital. Today, the house is part of Bronx Community College, having previously been part of New York University. It is named after Henry Mitchell MacCracken, professor of philosophy and the NYU chancellor who oversaw the acquisition and development of the NYU campus at University Heights.

Webb Institute and Home for Shipbuilders, 1914. Established by shipbuilder (and industrialist and philanthropist) William Henry Webb in 1889, the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture educated its students in structural and mechanical engineering and other scientific disciplines, with the goal of creating more efficient and advanced ship designers. Construction on the Bronx home for the school began in 1890 and was completed the year its first class graduated: 1893. The look of the school was intended to be "a romantic version of a medieval castle," with turrets, fanciful carving, and other decorative ornamentation. The building served its purpose for more than 50 years. During World War II the Navy trained officers here. In 1945 the Bronx building was deemed lacking in size and modern science facilities. It was sold, and the Institute moved to the former estate of Herbert L. Pratt in Glen Cove, Long Island. In 1950 the Fordham Hill Apartments were constructed on the hill that had once been home to the Webb Institute. These nine highrise apartment houses were initially rental properties but went co-op in 1982.

Gould Memorial Library, under construction, ca. 1894. Approaching the turn of the 20th century, New York University had reached the limits of its Greenwich Village campus. Seeking open space with room for grand architectural statements, the school acquired a hilltop site in the West Bronx from the Mali family. The master plan was designed by Stanford White, whose Gould Memorial Library anchors the campus. The Gould Library makes eclectic reference to Classical structures, in particular the Roman Pantheon. White extended the Pantheon concept to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, an arcaded terrace at the rear of the library, featuring bronze busts of notable figures. The library was completed in 1900, becoming the centerpiece of New York University’s West Bronx campus. In 1973, NYU left the University Heights site, selling its buildings to the City University of New York, which later renamed the campus Bronx Community College. Today, the Gould library requires significant structural repairs.