Two women, dressed in jogging outfits and pushing strollers, peered through the glass door of the newest branch of the New York Public Library a few days before it was to open at 175 North End Avenue in Battery Park City. From inside, the library’s newly minted manager, Billy Parrott, spotted the women and, smiling widely, rushed for the door.

“Next Monday,” he told the women, making no effort to hide his excitement. “We’ll be open at 10 a.m., sharp.”

It’s an exchange Parrott said he had dozens of times in the last few weeks, as he and his staff have were busy stocking the 10,000-square-foot library’s shelves in anticipation of its opening on Monday. The new library—once thought of as the pie-in-the-sky dream of a few neighborhood residents and community leaders—boasts a collection of more than 23,000 books, CDs and DVDs, with new materials still being added by the hundreds every day.

“People are really excited about this,” Parrot said a week before the library opened. “I think they’ve been waiting so long for a library here, there’s just this sense of relief that it’s finally happening.”

Indeed, more than a dozen people were lined up at the door the morning it opened to the public for the first time. Soon, the children’s section was bustling with mothers and nannies guiding their little ones through hundreds of brand new books and sidling up to computers. The adults’ section was busy as well, with patrons perusing the waiting collections of contemporary and classic fiction, reference materials and periodicals.

“I really didn’t have a gauge for what the crowd was going to be like,” Parrott said. “It’s been a really good mix of people. We had quite a few come in with their laptops, sit down and get right to work.”

Floor-to-ceiling window light wash the first-floor children’s section—complete with a story-time corner, kids-only computers and stroller parking. And on the second floor, it brightens the library’s already luminous orange and white decor. A multimedia lab and reading alcoves overlook Teardrop Park and the Hudson River.

“It’s just such a wonderful thing to have in the neighborhood,” said North End Avenue resident Marni Brewster, who was one of the first Battery Park City parents to avail her children, Whitney and Wilson, of the library’s well-stocked children’s corner. “I love the way it looks, the colors, and how it's all very inviting. We’re just so glad to have it.”

While much of the library’s day-to-day programming is still being finalized, Parrott said a few programs and activities have already been scheduled, including weekly story times for toddlers and arts and crafts workshops for kids aged 5-12. Computer classes, author readings and movie screenings are also in the works.

For residents, many of whom began campaigning for a library in the neighborhood more than a decade ago, it is a long-overdue addition to Battery Park City.

"I really welcome it," said Janis Collado, who's lived on nearby River Terrace for more than a decade. On that first day, Collado was browsing through travel books, preparing for a trip to the Southwest.

"It's something that this community has needed for a long time," Collado said. "It'll be nice not to have to go all the way to Tribeca or Midtown just to get to a library.

At a meeting of the Battery Park City Committee earlier this month, chairwoman Linda Belfer credited resident Percy Corcoran for sparking the grassroots push for a library 11 years ago. Corcoran--who was there to see the library doors open for the first time Monday morning--moved into Battery Park City in 1998. Shortly thereafter, she began a letter writing campaign that led to rallies and meetings with local politicians and city officials. Back then, Corcoran said, it looked as if the library would be built on South End Avenue.

“Everything was going great, but then Sept. 11 happened,” Corcoran said.

In the ensuing years, residents, Community Board 1 members and other library advocates wrangled endlessly with developers and city officials for space and funding for the facility. Finally, in 2004, the Battery Park City Authority agreed to donate 10,000 square feet of the River House building—at a rent of $1 per-year through 2069—while Goldman Sachs, in exchange for CB1's support of its massive new office building in the neighborhood, offered to put up $3.5 million toward its construction.

Delays and cost overruns eventually saw the library’s price tag swell to $6.7 million, forcing the city and the Battery Park City Authority to make up the difference. Now, after 11 years of uncertainty and false starts, Corcoran said she struggled to hold back tears as the library finally opened.

"I'm a little farklempt," Cocroran said at the library's grand opening ceremony on March 18. Corcoran said she and Marti Cohen-Wolf, another early advocate of the library, knew the facility was a necessity in the neighborhood, but could hardly have imagined how popular the new library would turn out to be.

 

"We had people from all age groups, from all walks of life here the minute it opened," Corcoran said. "It's so immediately important, and in a month, everyone's probably going to forget that it was never here."

For more information about the Battery Park City branch of the New York Public Library, including updates to the library’s schedule of programs and activities, go to http://nypl.org/locations/battery-park-city.