CROWN HEIGHTS — Following a seven-month closure for renovations, a neighborhood library branch is back online this week.
The Eastern Parkway branch at Schenectady Avenue in Crown Heights officially reopened Monday after the 102-year-old library — built in 1914 with funding from philanthropist and steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie — got a new roof and interior updates, including new computers, shelving, lighting and paint.
The president of the Brooklyn Public Library system, Linda Johnson, joined Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo at the branch reopening, where a class of students at P.S. 532 — located directly across the street from the library — celebrated the new space with a reading and sing-along.
“It’s raining today, which means that we know that the roof job is working,” Cumbo told the crowd gathered inside the bright, newly renovated space, anchored by a bright yellow information desk.
The recent upgrades to the Carnegie library, one of 18 in Brooklyn, were made thanks in part to $500,000 in allocations from Cumbo’s office, Johnson said, and a capital project by the city’s Department of Design and Construction. She thanked the council member for monetary support for the building, which hadn’t been renovated since 1975, while stressing that the branch still needs major improvements, including a new HVAC system and boiler.
“As great as the work is that we’ve done in this branch, believe it or not — and this happens with old buildings, especially with Carnegies — we have another $7 million of work that needs to be done to make this library truly what it should be,” she said.
The library, located at 1044 Eastern Parkway on the corner of Schenectady Avenue, is fully operational as of Monday and will resume its normal hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays, 10 a.m to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. The library is closed on Sundays.
