50 feet high and 25 feet thick granite walls that could hold up to 20,000,000 gallons of water! This was the Croton Distributing Reservoir and it served a crucial role in the development of New York City.

Following a series of Cholera outbreaks, the Croton Distributing Reservoir was the final stop of the Croton Aqueduct System that brought freshwater down into New York City.

However, eventually, the growing city outstripped the reservoir and it became outdated.

In the late 1890s, the newly established library announced an open competition for the creation of a new building on the land where the Croton Reservoir stood.

The commission was awarded to the (then largely unknown) firm of Carrère & Hastings. After two years of dismantling the reservoir, the cornerstone for the new structure was laid on November 10, 1902.

The resulting edifice, which was then the largest marble structure constructed in the United States, was designed to the wishes of the library's director.

Dr. Billing envisioned a grand reading room constructed on top of seven floors of stacks and a complex system for book retrieval and dissemination. Dedicated on May 23, 1911 (the 16th anniversary of the merger that created the new centralized institution) the new library installed 75 miles of shelving for its one million books.

The library was immediately an overwhelming success, with between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors on the very first day.