New York Public Library

In front of you is one of the great Beaux-Arts buildings in the United States: the main branch of the New York Public Library. When it opened on May 23, 1911, it was the largest marble building ever attempted in the country up to that time.

1Three fortunes and a reservoir

The library was created in 1895 by merging two private libraries, the Astor and the Lenox, with the bequest of the politician Samuel J. Tilden. All three names are carved high on the facade. The chosen site was occupied by the Croton Reservoir, a huge walled basin that distributed water to the city. It was demolished, and remnants of its walls still survive in the foundations.

The design was by the firm Carrère & Hastings, which won the competition with a building of Vermont marble.

2Patience and Fortitude

The two lions on the steps were designed by Edward Clark Potter and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. At first they were called Leo Astor and Leo Lenox. In the 1930s, in the depths of the Great Depression, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia renamed them Patience and Fortitude, the virtues he believed New Yorkers would need to get through it.

Patience sits on the south side; Fortitude, on the north. At Christmas they usually wear evergreen wreaths around their necks.

3What to look for

• The two lions, the library's symbol.
• The names Astor, Lenox and Tilden, carved above the columns.
• Bryant Park, behind the building, where book stacks are stored beneath the lawn.