Lenox Library (New York)

Lenox Library
Lenox Library, View from the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th Street
General information
Status	Demolished
Type	Library
Architectural style	Neo-Grec, Modern Classic
Address	1001 Fifth Avenue
Town or city	New York, NY 10021
Country	United States
Construction started	1871
Completed	1877
Demolished	1912
Technical details
Floor count	2.5
Design and construction
Architect	Richard Morris Hunt

The Lenox Library was a library incorporated and endowed in 1870. It was both an architectural and intellectual landmark in Gilded Age New York City. It was founded by bibliophile and philanthropist James Lenox, and located on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71th streets. Renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the building, which was considered one of the city's most notable buildings, until its destruction in 1912.

The library’s collection was unsurpassed in its collection of Bibles, and included the first Gutenberg Bible to cross the Atlantic. It was also known for its collection of Shakespeare, Milton, and early American literature. The library became a part of the founding collection of the New York Public Library in 1895, and opened to the public in this capacity in 1911.

The Lenox Library began as the personal collection of James Lenox, and was housed in his home at 53 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 12th Street. Lenox began collecting principally books, but also fine paintings and sculpture, around 1845. He worked briefly with the London literary agency Wiley & Putnam, and then with Henry Stevens of Vermont for the next thirty-five years, or the remainder of his life. Stevens worked mostly in Europe, locating fine and rare volumes for the growing Lenox collection. He bought them and sold them to Mr. Lenox with a ten percent commission.

James Lenox had a cataloguing system known only to him, and kept his books bound and piled in the rooms of his townhouse, not on shelves or in according to any organized system. It was this overcrowding and lack of ease of use of the library that inspired him to build a separate institution with the express purpose of housing his book collection.

Lenox built his library on a lot on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st streets. James Lenox had inherited some thirty acres of farmland between 68th and 73rd streets and Fifth and Madison avenues from his father, Robert, in 1839. Even after the construction of the Lenox Library, the Lenox farm continued operations in the surrounding lots. Robert Lenox advised his son before his death not to sell the land too soon, for he predicted the city would expand uptown towards his land and raise its value. He was correct, and when James Lenox did choose to sell some of his land in lots to wealthy homebuilders, he made a great deal of money.