On This Day in History, February 1: Library at Grand Army Opens

February 1, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
Brooklyn_Public_Library_Plaza%20copy.jpg
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On Feb. 1, 1941, the Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library finally opened to the public at Grand Army Plaza. Construction on the building began in 1912. It was initially planned in 1897 as a Victorian structure. Construction stopped during World War I and the Great Depression. The old designs were scrapped when construction was resumed as part of a WPA project in the late ’30s. Even as it opened in 1941, more than half the interior was incomplete and not finished until the 1950s.  The Art Deco structure has been declared a New York City landmark. The photo above shows the library as it is today, after the redesign of the front pedestrian plaza in 2007.

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