🏢 Brooklyn Public Library — Brooklyn, New York

Macon Library

One of Brooklyn's best-preserved Carnegie libraries, this 1907 Classical Revival landmark still welcomes Bed-Stuy readers with its original fireplaces, oak paneling, and wooden benches.

📖 About Macon Library

The Macon Library at 361 Lewis Avenue, at the corner of Macon Street, opened on July 15, 1907, as Brooklyn's eleventh Carnegie library, funded by a donation from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Designed by architect Richard A. Walker of the firm Walker & Morris in the Classical Revival style, the two-story building was constructed of red brick with limestone trim and a slate roof at a cost of $93,481, and originally held about 10,000 books with room to grow to 25,000. It is celebrated as one of the best-preserved Carnegie branches in Brooklyn, retaining its original fireplaces, oak paneling, reading alcoves, and wooden benches more than a century later. Today Macon is a cultural anchor of Bedford-Stuyvesant, home to the Dionne Mack-Harvin Center, the branch's African American Heritage Center, which holds materials on African American history and culture along with the 'Preserving Footsteps' collection documenting the neighborhood. The heritage center was established during a renovation of the building in the mid-2000s, deepening the library's role as a gathering place and archive for the historically Black community it serves.

⭐ What makes this branch special

• Opened July 15, 1907 as Brooklyn's 11th Carnegie library
• Classical Revival design by architect Richard A. Walker (Walker & Morris)
• Retains original fireplaces, oak paneling, alcoves, and wooden benches
• Home to the Dionne Mack-Harvin Center, an African American Heritage Center

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