All Brooklyn Public Library locations will be closed for Memorial Day Weekend from Saturday, May 25th through Monday, May 27th.
Good news! Coney Island and Gerritsen Beach libraries will reopen this fall after extensive renovations due to Hurricane Sandy. See our Hurricane Sandy Renovations page for updates.
The first Bushwick Branch was housed in the rented ground floor of a church at Montrose Avenue and Humboldt Street. This building burned in early 1903, and the library moved to to its present site on Bushwick Avenue near Seigel Street. The present Carnegie building, designed by Raymond F. Almirall opened to the public on December 16, 1908.
During the early years of the Bushwick Branch, the surrounding community was characterized by overcrowded tenements occupied largely by Russian Jews, although there was also a growing Italian population, many of whom lived on Humboldt Street between Johnson and Montrose Avenues. In spite of these conditions, or perhaps because of them, the Bushwick Branch library became a refuge for thousands of people in the community. In fact, by 1916, the Bushwick Branch enjoyed the highest circulation of any branch in the system at the time.
As the twentieth century moved forward, the surrounding community changed and circulation declined. Unfortunately, in 1957 the branch was forced to close for renovations, and did not open again for more than four years. When it did re-open, it was known as the Family Reading Center and carried the distinction of being the first branch to specifically serve the burgeoning Puerto Rican population with a Puerto Rican-born children's librarian The branch has continued this tradition of serving a multicultural community for nearly forty years.
Bushwick was one of the six original towns of Brooklyn during Dutch rule. It was established as Boswijck (Heavy Woods) in 1960. In addition to the Library (1908) notable area buildings include The Reformed Church of South Brunwick at 15 Himrod Street (1853) and St. Mark's Lutheran Church and School at 626 Bushwick Avenue (1892). -- Rawson, Elizabeth Reich, ed. "Bushwick." in The Encyclopedia of New York City. Ed. Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955. 171-172.
