Astor Hall

Narrator: Astor Hall—the magnificent foyer of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building—provides a stunning welcome to this New York City landmark.

The library’s Beaux-Arts style of architecture—characterized by grand symmetry and intricate ornamentation—is on full display as high-vaulted ceilings top a spacious, rectangular room. White marble with swirls of wispy black, gray, and beige gleams on every surface.

With the entrance behind you, three round arches along the back of Astor Hall lead into the main corridor that runs parallel to Fifth Avenue.

Above the arches is a second-floor gallery with an overlook, where patrons can get a bird’s-eye view of the palatial hall. Wide square pillars on either side of the central arch present the following inscriptions:

On the left: “The city of New York has erected this building to be maintained forever as a free library for the use of the people.”

On the right: “On the diffusion of education among the people rest the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions.”

Below these words are the names of library benefactors, including John Jacob Astor; Alexander Hamilton; Samuel Jones Tilden; Andrew Carnegie; Margaret Wolfe Duyckinck; and many more. The massive stone pillars throughout the hall bear the names of dozens of benefactors arranged by years from 1848 to the present.

Another tribute stands out in the center of the hall’s gray marble floor: a beige stone plaque interrupting the pattern of squares and circles. The engraving reads:

“Inscribed here are the words of an immigrant whose life was transformed by the library and whose estate now enriches it. In memory: Martin Radtke 1883 to 1973.”

To your left and right, you’ll encounter more grand arches framing the ornate marble staircases that provide the foyer an elegant symmetry. Each set of steps is bordered by marble railings carved with leaf designs and leads up to a landing illuminated by an iron-and-glass lantern. Niches display busts of library architects John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, as well as philanthropist John Stewart Kennedy. Carvings of satyr masks, bearded faces with pointed ears and open mouths, adorn the arms of marble benches. From each landing, steps lead to the second floor past paintings of James Lenox in the north stair and Samuel Tilden in the south in gilded frames.

Beside the staircase on the right side of the hall, you’ll find the visitor information desk, and straight ahead through the center arch is Gottesman Hall, featuring the Polonsky Exhibition of the New York Public Library’s Treasures.

Finally, four marble, free-standing candelabras cast a soft glow over the lofty space. Approximately ten feet tall, each has a base carved with an ox face and is supported by three ox hooves. At the top, sixteen bronze arms end in lion heads that hold glowing lamps resembling candles. The bronze arms surround a central candlestick.

Interpretive commentary for Astor Hall follows.

Alison Stewart: Welcome to Astor Hall: the heart of this building and one of the most significant rooms in New York City.

Look up and around you… Take in the embellishments, the arches, the columns. Liz Leber is managing partner at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects, who worked on key renovations in this building.

Liz Leber: Astor Hall is also an interior landmark designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. It is the grand foyer to one of the grandest buildings in New York City.

Alison Stewart: In the early 1900s, two architects, John M. Carrère and Thomas Hastings—immigrants who were relatively unknown at the time but won a competition to design the new Library—created this grand Beaux-Arts–style building to represent Gilded Age wealth and splendor.

Liz Leber: Some of the most identifiable aspects of this library as a Beaux-Arts building is what we call their axes or the lines that very clearly set up the symmetry of the building when you walk in. You walk into Astor Hall. You look left, and you look right, and you see a matching pair of stairs. There’s a sense of procession.

Alison Stewart: The elaborate design, rivaling some of Europe’s grandest landmarks, proclaimed that New York had arrived on the world stage.

And the star of this room is the floor-to-ceiling glowing white marble. It’s cold—go ahead, touch it—and sounds echo off the hard surface, filling the space.

This building is indeed opulent—but it was built “to be maintained forever for the free use of the people.” When the Library was established in 1895, its founders had this very vision in mind.

Carved into the stone, on the walls between the arches, are the names of the Library’s earliest benefactors, including Library founders John Jacob Astor, James Lenox, and Samuel Tilden—civic leaders and members of prominent families in 19th-century New York who helped create the Library. You might recognize some of the names. And above those names, also etched in the marble, are some of the fundamental ideals on which the Library was founded.

Now, look down at the plaque on the floor near the revolving doors. You will see a name most do not know: Martin Radtke, a humble Lithuanian immigrant who used the library’s resources to educate himself. This education enabled him to amass a small fortune, which he left to the Library in gratitude when he died. The Library in turn honored him with this plaque as a reminder that serving the public is at the center of the Library’s mission.

Now, if you head into the hall beyond the arches, you’ll find two interesting highlights: to the right is the Visitor Center, and to the left, near the Library Shop and Café, are remnants of the structure that stood here before the Library was built. Both are featured on this audio guide.