Jefferson Market Library (New York City, New York)

172-foot library building completed in 1877 as a courthouse. Designed by Frederick Clarke Withers and Calvert Vaux in the High Victorian style. At the peak of this block, the mammoth tower of the courthouse rises dramatically like the prow of a fantastic ship. The top of the tower was designed as an enclosed fire lookout with an enormous alarm bell, and it has a four-faced clock above the bell to serve the community. The courthouse also features a great gable, triple window, stained glass, and City seal on the Sixth Avenue facade. With its rich polychromy and horizontal band courses, the building positively glows with color.

After its career as a courthouse was over, it was given various uses by the City including that of Police Academy. It sat abandoned in the 1960s, but was ultimately saved by Greenwich Village preservationist groups and opened as a branch of the New York Public Library in 1967. remodeled and opened in 1967 as a branch of The New York Public Library. The remodeling of this notable building was skillfully executed by architect Giorgio Cavaglieri. The exterior as again cleaned and restored in 2012.

A further history of the building can be read here:
www.nypl.org/branch/features/index2.cfm?PFID=120

 libraryNRHP - National Register of Historic PlacesVictorian Gothic (architecture)interesting place1877_constructionU.S. National Historic Landmark