New York Public Library Tour: Free Building Tours and What You See

The Tours Side by Side

The building tour is the full walk through the public rooms of Carrère and Hastings' 1911 landmark, and it lasts about an hour. The Rose Main Reading Room tour is a short 15-minute session that focuses on the building's most famous room. Both run Monday to Saturday only, because the building is closed on Sundays. The times, lengths and group limits below come from NYPL's own tour listing.

If your dates do not line up with a tour time, you lose very little by touring on your own. The building is open Monday 10-6, Tuesday and Wednesday 10-8, Thursday to Saturday 10-6, and browsing the building needs no tour ticket.

How the Free Tickets Work

Nothing here costs money. The constraint is capacity. The one-hour building tour takes 20 people per slot, and the Rose Room tour takes 25, so a popular week can empty the list quickly. NYPL releases building tour tickets every Sunday for the week ahead, which means your best move is to go online on a Sunday and book the day and time you want before visitors arriving midweek get there. The Rose Room sessions run more often, three times a day across the six open days, so a missed slot usually has another one a few hours later.

Arrive a few minutes early either way. The building is at 476 Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, and the 7 train's Fifth Avenue station has an entrance at the north end of the site. Do not confuse the tour with a visit. Anyone can walk in and browse during opening hours with no tour ticket, and the research rooms operate for readers. The tours add the guide's account of the architecture and the rooms you might otherwise walk past.

• Building tour: 1 hour, 11 AM and 2 PM Monday to Saturday, 20 places, tickets out every Sunday.
• Rose Room tour: 15 minutes, 11:20 AM, 1:30 PM and 3 PM, 25 places.
• Rose Room visiting hour: 10 to 11 AM, last entry 10:50 AM, no booking needed.
• Closed Sundays. Tuesday and Wednesday are the late days, until 8 PM.

The Paid Midtown Walk That Includes the Library

If you want a guide and a longer route, one catalog tour lists the library as a stop. The Art Deco and Architecture Midtown Landmarks Tour costs $40 per person and runs 2 hours 30 minutes with groups up to 10, led by a professional guide from Custom NYC Tours. It passes Bryant Park and the New York Public Library, then continues to the American Radiator Building, the Chanin Building, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center, with several indoor stops.

Note what it does not include: it views the library from outside, so it does not replace the free interior tours above. The sensible plan is one of NYPL's own tours inside and this walk for the district around it.

• Price: $40 per person, free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
• Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes, group size up to 10.
• Meeting point: in front of Whole Foods at 1095 6th Avenue, take the B, D, F or M to 42nd Street.
• Not included: gratuities.

The Lions and Astor Hall

Start outside. The two lions at the Fifth Avenue stairs are Tennessee marble, designed by Edward Clark Potter and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. Their first names were Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, shortened to Lord Astor and Lady Lenox, before Mayor Fiorello La Guardia renamed them Patience and Fortitude in the 1930s. Patience is the south lion and Fortitude the north lion, and the library's logo shows a single stone lion.

Climb the stairs and you are in Astor Hall, the first-floor lobby at the top. It spans three bays north to south and two east to west, with Vermont marble on the walls and ceiling and a shallow barrel vault. The building went up on the site of the Croton Reservoir, and about 500 workers spent two years dismantling the reservoir before the cornerstone was laid in 1902. The finished building cost $9 million and opened May 23, 1911, with President William Howard Taft presiding, 75 miles of shelves and more than one million books. Between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors came through on the first day.

• Architects: Carrère and Hastings, Beaux-Arts style, opened 1911.
• Lions: Tennessee marble, by Edward Clark Potter and the Piccirilli Brothers.
• Astor Hall: Vermont marble walls and ceiling, barrel vault.

The McGraw Rotunda

On the third floor, the McGraw Rotunda was once called Central Hall. Its decoration is the reason to slow down here. Edward Laning painted four wall panels and two lunettes under the WPA, finished in 1940, and a ceiling mural titled Prometheus Bringing Fire to Men, finished in 1942. The murals fit the building's founding story, since the library itself grew out of Samuel J. Tilden's bequest of about $2.4 million and John Jacob Astor's $400,000 pledge to the Astor Library, which opened in 1849. The Astor and Lenox libraries and the Tilden Trust merged under an agreement signed May 23, 1895, the same month and day the building would open in 1911.

From the rotunda, the route to the Rose Room passes through the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room, which shares the Rose Room's restoration history.

• Murals: four panels and two lunettes by Edward Laning, 1940.
• Ceiling: Prometheus Bringing Fire to Men, 1942.
• Founding merger of Astor, Lenox and Tilden: signed May 23, 1895.

The Rose Main Reading Room

The room at the top of most people's list measures 78 by 297 feet with a 52-foot ceiling. It sits at the heart of founding director Dr. John Shaw Billings' plan for a huge reading room atop seven floors of stacks, the scheme that won Carrère and Hastings the design competition. Today the books live in the Bryant Park stacks, built underground from 1988 to 1991, and a $100 million gift from Stephen A. Schwarzman in 2008 gave the building its current name.

The room you see is a restored one. In May 2014 a rosette fell from the ceiling, and the Rose Room and the Public Catalog Room closed for a $12 million restoration. The work braced the rosettes with steel cables, added LED fixtures, recreated the catalog room's mural and replaced the old chain-and-lift book conveyor with 'book trains'. Both rooms reopened on October 5, 2016. If you skip the tour, the free visiting hour runs 10 to 11 AM Monday to Saturday with last entry at 10:50 AM.

One more stop for map lovers. The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, created in 1898, holds more than 20,000 atlases and 433,000 sheet maps, and Allied military intelligence used it during World War II for coastline research. The building as a whole houses some 15 million items, from medieval manuscripts to baseball cards, and drew four million annual visitors by the 1920s.

• Room size: 78 by 297 feet, 52-foot ceiling.
• Restoration: $12 million after a 2014 ceiling failure, reopened October 5, 2016.
• Map Division: 433,000 sheet maps and more than 20,000 atlases.

From Competition to Cornerstone

Dr. John Shaw Billings, the library's founding director, sketched a plan for a huge reading room atop seven floors of stacks, and the firm Carrere & Hastings won the design competition. The site at 476 Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets was the former Croton Reservoir, and about 500 workers spent two years dismantling it. The cornerstone was laid November 10, 1902.

The building cost $9 million and was dedicated May 23, 1911, with President William Howard Taft presiding. It carried 75 miles of shelves and more than one million books. Between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors streamed through on the first day, and one reader got his book within seven minutes of filing a request at 9:08 AM. The date matters twice: the Astor and Lenox libraries and the Tilden Trust merged under an agreement signed May 23, 1895, sixteen years to the day before opening. The Astor side began with John Jacob Astor's $400,000 pledge, and Samuel J. Tilden left about $2.4 million to fund a free library and reading room.

Marble, Lions and Astor Hall

The two lions at the Fifth Avenue stairs are Tennessee marble, designed by Edward Clark Potter and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. They were first named Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, later shortened to Lord Astor and Lady Lenox even though both lions are male, and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia renamed them Patience and Fortitude in the 1930s. Patience is the south lion, Fortitude the north one, and a single stone lion is the library's logo.

Astor Hall, the first-floor lobby at the top of the stairs, spans three north-south bays and two west-east bays, with Vermont marble on the walls and ceiling and a shallow barrel vault. On the third floor, the McGraw Rotunda holds Edward Laning's WPA murals: four wall panels and two lunettes finished in 1940 and a ceiling mural, Prometheus Bringing Fire to Men, finished in 1942. The route from the rotunda to the Rose Main Reading Room runs through the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room.

The Rose Room Restoration

In May 2014 a rosette fell from the Rose Main Reading Room ceiling, and the room and the Public Catalog Room closed for a $12 million restoration. The work supported the rosettes with steel cables, added LED fixtures, recreated the Public Catalog Room mural and replaced the chain-and-lift book conveyor with 'book trains'. Both rooms reopened on October 5, 2016.

The room itself measures 78 by 297 feet with a 52-foot ceiling, and it had reopened once before, on November 16, 1998, after an earlier renovation. Below Bryant Park, new stacks were built from 1988 to 1991 to hold the collection that once ran on 75 miles of shelves. The Map Division, created in 1898, holds more than 20,000 atlases and 433,000 sheet maps, and during World War II Allied military intelligence used it for research on coastlines in the combat theater. A $100 million gift from Stephen A. Schwarzman in 2008 gave the building its current name.

Later Plans and Landmarks

The main branch is a National Historic Landmark since 1965. In November 2017 the NYPL board approved a $317 million master plan by Mecanoo and Beyer Blinder Belle that adds a 40th Street entrance and about 20 percent more public space, with construction begun in July 2018. The building had four million annual visitors by the 1920s, and its circulating division moved to the Mid-Manhattan Library in 1970. The circulating Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library sits across Fifth Avenue at 40th Street.

For more context on how the building fits into the district, see the New York architecture tours and the guide to the Grand Central Terminal tour, whose 1.5 hour route also runs along East 42nd Street.

Bryant Park, Next Door

The Schwarzman Building sits directly east of Bryant Park on the site of the Croton Reservoir, and the library's underground Bryant Park stacks were built between 1988 and 1991 beneath the park. NYPL says visitors at the Schwarzman Building may also use a free, publicly accessible rooftop terrace, which is worth knowing before you step outside. The 7 train's Fifth Avenue station has an entrance at the north end of the building.

The Paid Midtown Walk

If you want a guided architecture walk through the neighborhood, the catalog lists the Art Deco and Architecture Midtown Landmarks Tour, a 2 hour 30 minute walk on the booking platform by Custom NYC Tours for $40 per person. It passes Bryant Park, the New York Public Library, the American Radiator Building, the Chanin and Chrysler Buildings, Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center, with groups capped at 10 and several indoor stops. It meets in front of Whole Foods at 1095 6th Ave. Note what the listing says and does not say: the library is a stop passed on the walk, not an entry ticket, and the free NYPL tours inside the building are separate.

The Chrysler Building is covered in its own Chrysler Building guide, Rockefeller Center in the Rockefeller Center tour page, and Grand Central in the Grand Central tour guide. The American Radiator Building on the route, at 40 West 40th Street, was designed by Raymond Hood and Andre Fouilhoux, completed in 1924, stands 338 feet with a black brick facade and gold-colored ornament, and became an NYC landmark in November 1974.