Westchester Square Library, 1938.

The New York Public Library’s Westchester Square Branch opened to the public in 1937, operating out of a refurbished comfort station in Owen F. Dolen Park. The library moved to a new location on nearby Glebe Avenue in 1956.

In 1925, local resident Owen F. Dolen gave a speech dedicating a new World War I memorial in the park, then known as Westchester Square. Dolen, who had been a leading advocate for the monument, collapsed from heart attack shortly after concluding his remarks. The park was renamed in his memory the following year.