What is now New York University was founded in 1831; its original campus faced
Washington Square Park in
Manhattan. NYU was a small college with less than a hundred students for its first half-century. The formerly residential area surrounding Washington Square Park had evolved into a commercial neighborhood by the late 19th century, and MacCracken believed the growth of commerce would stymie undergraduate education. MacCracken acquired the estate of H. W. T. Mali, on a bluff in the Bronx along the
Harlem River, in May 1891.
Development Planning In January 1892, MacCracken wrote a letter to White, asking the architect if he would be interested in designing NYU's Bronx campus. White originally planned to relocate NYU's original building "stone by stone" to the Bronx. The relocated building would contain a museum, library, and chapel; the Mali mansion would contain classrooms. In addition, two new structures were to have been constructed. The campus was to contain science, language, and philosophy halls; a library; a chapel; and dormitories, all arranged around a quadrangle. Around the same time, MacCracken began raising money for the new campus. By February 1894, White had outlined a plan for two classroom buildings flanking a domed central building. All structures would be made of yellow brick and limestone.
Funding and construction Norcross Brothers began constructing the campus that April, and White was finalizing his plans for the library by the end of 1894. The first building on the new campus was the Hall of Languages, as that was the only structure for which funds had been procured. The donor was Jay Gould's daughter
Helen Miller Shepard, whose name was mentioned in the
New-York Tribune in relation with a separate $20,000 gift for NYU's dormitories. The library donation was part of $1.39 million in capital gifts that Shepard gave to NYU throughout her lifetime. As the central building of the new NYU campus, the library had the largest budget; the remaining buildings had simpler designs due to a lack of funds. The library's budget was influenced by the design, whereas the opposite was typically true. Hunt, Hardenbergh, and Post all declined to participate. In mid-1895, MacCracken wrote a letter to White, requesting that the library be recessed behind the Hall of Languages. MacCracken continued to modify the design after the groundbreaking. In September 1896, he wrote that it was "rather bewildering" that $500,000 had already been spent on the library, even though it had not been fitted out. The first event hosted at the library was a conference for the
American Philological Association, By the end of the year, the Gould Library was nearly complete; its construction had been delayed due to difficulties in securing the Connemara marble columns. According to a
New-York Tribune article from that December, all work had been finished except for the installation of some furniture. A stained-glass window depicting justice, goodness, and power was also installed at Gould in early 1901. By the end of the year, Gould had 61,000 volumes, of which 5,000 had been added during the past year. The adjacent Hall of Fame was dedicated in May 1901, a year after Shepard had donated $100,000 for the hall. NYU started using the library's auditorium for
commencement ceremonies in 1903. During the early 20th century, the library hosted free concerts, public-speaking contests, and Easter services. NYU approved plans for the Hall of American Artists at the Gould Library in the late 1910s. Sixteen busts of artists, painters, and sculptors were approved for the library's reading room. The first busts, commemorating American artists
Carroll Beckwith,
George Inness, and Clinton Ogilvie, were installed at the Gould Library in August 1921. That December, NYU officials dedicated a new set of front doors for the library, which had been manufactured in memory of Stanford White.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1925);
James Abbott McNeill Whistler and
Samuel Morse (1928);
Francis Davis Millet,
Elihu Vedder,
Charles Webster Hawthorne, and
Charles Grafly (1934); and
Charles Henry Niehaus (1938). A bust of NYU chancellor
Elmer Ellsworth Brown was installed in the chancellors' office in 1932, following his retirement. The library's auditorium continued to host commencement ceremonies for students who were graduating with
baccalaureate degrees. Starting with the 1943 ceremony, overflow seating was placed outside the library due to the growing number of guests at the annual ceremonies. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Gould Library also hosted pie-throwing contests to raise money for various student organizations. The library was also used for exhibits in the mid-20th century, such as a display of printing mediums and a showcase of old maps of the Bronx. The James Arthur Museum of Clocks and Watches, which opened in the basement in 1950, operated for at least a decade. NYU built additional libraries in the 1950s, since the Gould Library could no longer accommodate all of NYU's collections. The university started fundraising in 1964 and had obtained most of the necessary funds within three years. The NYU campus was the site of several student protests in the late 1960s. Amid this unrest, Gould's auditorium was severely damaged by arson in April 1969, though the main library was not damaged. At the time, Gould had 300,000 books. creating a large financial deficit for NYU. The New York state government recommended in February 1972 that NYU sell its Bronx campus, and governor
Nelson Rockefeller authorized the sale three months later. New York City's public university system, the
City University of New York (CUNY), acquired the campus in early 1973 for $62 million, moving Bronx Community College there. BCC moved onto the campus that September. The Gould Library was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1979, as part of the Hall of Fame Complex, and the LPC designated the library's interior as a New York City landmark in 1981. The Gould Library fell into disrepair during the late 20th century. One issue was that, since the library building had few emergency exits, it had a very low
seating capacity. Ferrer also provided funding for a new sound and lighting system for the library. By 2015, a group called Save Gould Memorial Library was advocating for the building to be restored and reused. A spokesperson for Bronx Community College said, "It matters to CUNY, but we've got to keep heat going for students." The city had provided $4 million for the restoration of the library building, and the
Extell Development Company provided additional funds for the digitization of the library's original blueprints. Save Gould Memorial Library estimated that the renovation would cost $50 million. Gould's dome and oculus were restored at a cost of $18.3 million, and an exit stair was added for $2 million; both projects were completed in May 2023. == Impact ==