📚In 1901 after selling his corporation for $500 million, steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie announced a $5.2 million donation to the City of New York for the construction of public library buildings. With this gift, 67 branch libraries were constructed in the five boroughs between 1903 and 1929. 📚

Interior of the Eastern Parkway Branch, BPL, 1915. Constructed in 1914 and designed by Raymond Almirall, the Eastern Parkway Branch was funded by the Carnegie Foundation. This branch became one of the borough's most heavily used facilities, surrounded by densely populated residential communities. This photograph depicts the children's department, and today the library continues to provide rich children's programming.

Brooklyn Carnegie Libraries: Eastern Parkway Branch CLIENT: BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHITECT: Raymond F. Almiral DATE: 1914 STYLE: Classical Revival The building has several characteristics of the suburban Carnegie library type. Located mostly in the less densely populated areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens, these branches are most often freestanding structures within a larger lot (most often they are surrounded by a lawn). Frequently, the libraries have a symmetrical layout, large windows to allow an abundance of light into the reading rooms, and a prominent, decorative entrance. This one-story, five-bay stone Classical Revival is topped with a stone balustrade on its flat roof. Large arched windows line the façade, including one over the central doorway. The entrance door has been replaced, and the building underwent rehabilitation work in 1950-51, 1969 and 1975. The interior originally one-story interior has been divided into two floors. It retains details such as the original reading nook with fireplace and mantel of decorative tile, wood paneling and decorative plaster ceilings.