Step Inside a Secret Library Apartment - Atlas Obscura

Step Inside a Secret Library Apartment

Not so very long ago, New York Public Library buildings were heated by coal furnaces. Those furnaces required a lot of upkeep, and needed full-time custodians to look after them. That’s why New York City’s early library buildings also included apartments—they were designed as dwellings for on-site custodians and their families. Today, only 13 of these original apartments remain.

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