Melrose residents in the South Bronx have their local library back.
More than three years after the Melrose Library branch closed its doors for renovations, New York Public Library administrators, elected officials, and community members celebrated the reopening of the Melrose Library at 910 Morris Avenue.
The branch returned last week with an additional floor, an elevator, separate floors dedicated to children, teens, and adults, and colorful, plush furniture along with new computers, programming spaces, and a community room.
Originally constructed in 1914, courtesy of funding from industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the building was four stories tall until a fire in 1959 wiped out the top two floors.
The improvements are part of the NYPL’s Carnegie Renovation Program, a $176 million capital project to bring “full renovations to five historic branches” also including the 125th Street Library in East Harlem, the Fort Washington Library in Washington Heights, the Hunts Point Library and the Port Richmond Library in Staten Island.
“They are all in neighborhoods of need,” NYPL president Tony Marx told THE CITY. “This one was particularly interesting because we realized we lost a floor because of a fire that needed to be restored,” which had “gone missing for decades.”
The renovation, he said, “is a statement of reinvestment by the city that says, ‘You know, in the past, we might have let a floor go. We’re not doing that anymore.’ We need these neighborhoods to have every opportunity, every square inch, for everyone to be able to learn and gain skills and find jobs and read whatever they want. That’s what we’re committed to.”
The NYPL completed construction for the 125th Street Library last month, while the branch in Hunts Point is slated to open sometime next month. The libraries in Washington Heights and Port Richmond are scheduled to reopen in the first quarter of 2025, said Marx, adding that the library system is currently negotiating with city officials over the next five branches to renovate. (Queens and Brooklyn each have their own, separate, public library systems.)
The Bronx trails other boroughs in literacy and communal reading spaces. Just 37% of the borough’s public school third-to-eight graders performed at or above grade level on last year’s standardized English Language Arts exam, compared to 52% citywide.
The borough is home to 35 New York Public Library branches, and one brick-and-mortar bookstore, The Lit Bar.
‘A Safe Haven’
Two teachers at a nearby elementary school walked into the branch on Tuesday to get an application to plan a school visit. They said that they had not been able to plan library trips for the last five years, first because of the shift to remote learning during the pandemic and then the branch’s temporary closure, which started in August 2021.
Designed by architectural firm Mitchel Giurgola Architects, the lower two floors include white oak floors and custom books cases with built-in benches at the windows. The top floor, reserved for children, offers abundant natural light. Each floor has 10 computers available for public use and offers program rooms next to furnished reading and gathering spaces.
In a 1997 interview in the Daily News, former borough historian Lloyd Ultan recalled growing up between the Highbridge Library and Melrose Library in the 1940s.
“The Highbridge library was smaller and more intimate,” he said. “The Melrose library was larger, and you had to climb a set of stairs to get to the children’s library. It was a real chore to climb them.”
Today, children and their adults can choose to take the stairs or the elevator added to the building.
“One of the goals for this project was to think about how to add back space and reorganize the library to serve 21st century needs and to serve children, teens, adults and the community,” said Carol Loewenson, a partner at Mitchel Giurgola.
“It looks real good,” said retired bus operator Clarence Council, 65, who grew up in the neighborhood and used the branch regularly as a kid in the 1960s.
Council, who has lived in New Jersey since 1996 and visits the neighborhood routinely to see his son, recalled using the library to escape violence.
“You got away from what was the gangs. Dope was the thing back in the day. So every time you walk in the streets, you see somebody and the dope,” Council told THE CITY. “And plus, they had something to give you. They always gave you some good information.”
Bronx Community Board 4 chair Beverly Bond, 65, recalled that as a child in the neighborhood, “we came here for story time. I don’t remember the first book, but story time was very important because story time is when you wanted to read.”
Past the books, Bond said, the library also serves a crucial role in child care.
“If you couldn’t get here, the school would have dropped children at the library, and they would have library time with their books. And you would come from work to the library and pick up your child.”
Councilmember Althea Stevens said the library, which is in her district, has long been “a safe haven” for her family.
“I remembered when I first moved to The Bronx over 20 years ago. I was a single mom, and this library was a safe haven for my daughter when I was working late or she needed a place to go and to do research,” she said.
“We’ve had a few sentimental moments where people have come in crying, saying that they’re happy that their branch is open. They’ve been here since a kid, and now their kids are able to come back to the community,” said Melrose Library manager Sabrina Seward, who has worked for the NYPL for 32 years after volunteering for credit while attending the now closed Catholic Aquinas High School.
“I know the community missed the branch, and since we’ve opened they’ve been coming in the doors, and we really appreciate that.”
