ARCHITECTURE: THE ORIGINAL SCHOMBURG ON 135TH

Harlem Bespoke: Most people know that the modern Schomburg Center the was built in 1980 on the corner of Lenox and 135th Street but might have missed out on the original building that held the collection almost a century ago.  At the turn of the last century, the Carnegie family donated funds to have new public libraries built all over the city by McKim, Mead and White who were the star architects of the day and 103 West 135th Street debuted in 1905 to a mostly white neighborhood.  That would soon change when the neighborhood would become the world's most famous black community over a decade later.

By 1920, the original branch librarian Ernestine Rose must have embraced the changes happening to the neighborhood and integrated the library which had an all white staff like all of the other libraries in the city.  This location would become a hub for the Harlem Renaissance and Arturo Alfonso Schomburg would eventually propose to have his personal collection of African American literature sold to the institution so that a permanent place could be established in Harlem.  This wish was granted in 1926 and over 5,000 pieces of work along with objects from the diaspora were transferred to the 135th Street Branch.  Arturo Schomburg would then become the curator of the collection in 1932 at the age of 58 until the time when historian passed away in 1938.  Read more about the iconic uptowner in our past post: LINK

HarlemBespoke.com 2020