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Jefferson Market Library
Architecture
Video architectural tour of the Jefferson Market Library
A tall octagonal wooden fire lookout tower was the first building on the site, built circa 1833, located in the center of the merchants' sheds at the Jefferson Market that had been established at this site in 1832 and named for the late President. Court sessions were held in the Jefferson Assembly Rooms that rose above the market sheds.
The wood tower and the market structures were swept away for a new courthouse, an adjacent jail building that stood on the corner of West 10th Street and Greenwich Avenue and new coordinated market housing (built in 1883). Of the carefully massed picturesque group, only the former Courthouse now remains. Its polychrome materials red brick, black stone, white granite, variegated roof slates are typical of the "Ruskinian gothic" aesthetic of Calvert Vaux's first ranges for the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the 1880s a panel of American architects voted the complex the fourth most beautiful buildings in America. The eclectic ensemble was inspired by Venetian Gothic details and featured stained glass windows and a four-sided clock tower.
Use and re-use
The forbidding New York Women's House of Detention with Art Deco details that had replaced the structures along Greenwich Avenue in 1932 was razed in 1973-74 and its site planted as a volunteer-run community garden and local recycling center called the Jefferson Market Greening.
The Jefferson Market Courthouse ceased to be used as a courthouse in 1945. The building remained vacant and was slated for demolition, but local residents led by Margot Gayle who enlisted E. E. Cummings and Lewis Mumford saved the richly decorated brick structure by persuading the city to reuse the building as a public library. The interior was redesigned by Giorgio Cavaglieri: the police court became the Children's Reading Room, the Civil Court the Adult Reading Room.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977, both under its name as "Third Judicial District Courthouse".,
In the summer of 1987 a Michigan man by the name of Ed Bogans climbed the tower and was briefly detained by police. In 1996 "Ol' Jeff", the fire bell, silent in the Tower for 135 years, regained its voice with Margot Gayle's help, thanks to Cynthia Crane and Marilyn Dorato. It strikes the hours from 9am to 9pm. On April 13, 1997, the New York Times wrote: "The bell has newly and unexpectedly connected the community surrounding the building on Avenue of the Americas at 10th Street, helping to put the concept of village back in Greenwich Village; it serves as a powerful, an hourly, reminder of the values of architectural preservation."
During the annual Halloween Parade, a large spider is seen moving up and down the tower.
There are annual tours of the tower, typically on Open House New York day in October.
References
^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://www.nr.nps.gov/.
^ a b "Third Judicial District Courthouse". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2007-09-19. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1245&ResourceType=Building.
^ Noted by Joyce Gold, From Trout Stream to Bohemia: A Walking Guide to Greenwich Village History 1988:89.
^ Huxtable, Ada Louise (September 10, 1961). "To Keep the Best of New York". The New York Times.
^ AIA Guide to New York City, 4th edition, pg 130
^ Gold 1988.
^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination". National Park Service. 1977-05-24. http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/72000875.pdf.
^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination". National Park Service. 1977-05-24. http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/72000875.pdf.
^ Picture of spider in tower
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jefferson Market Library
Official Site
NYC Architecture Site
Timeline of building
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404405 735957 / 40.73462N 73.99915W / 40.73462; -73.99915Coordinates: 404405 735957 / 40.73462N 73.99915W / 40.73462; -73.99915
Categories: National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan | 1877 architecture | Libraries in New York City | National Historic Landmarks in New York City | West Village | Courthouses in New York | New York City building and structure stubs
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