The Landmarks Preservation Commission has scheduled a hearing April 2 on a proposal to protect the Seward Park Library, 192 East Broadway. Based on a preliminary agenda the item will be heard at 9:40 a.m. Members of the public are invited to offer testimony.
The 1909, 5-story limestone Renaissance-inspired building was one of 67 branch libraries funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The item is not expected to be controversial. You may have seen a New York Times piece the other day touching on a plan to sell property in Brooklyn controlled by the Public Library as a way of raising desperately needed funds; the libraries there would be torn down by developers and rebuilt.
There’s no sign of this type of move on the Lower East Side, but preservationists have definitely taken note of the developments in Brooklyn. Another neighborhood branch, the 1903 Chatham Square Library, lacks historic protection.
