"Secret" library apartments (New York, Amsterdam: neighborhood, school, to live in)

[Commander Beth]

Did you know that public libraries in New York were originally built with complete apartment residences inside? The apartments were occupied by library custodians with their families and were used right up until 2006 when the last resident custodian died. Some of these apartments still exist.

This article includes great pictures of the Fort Washington Branch apartment

Inside the New York Public Library's Last, Secret Apartments | Atlas Obscura



And this is the story about a little girl who grew up in a New York library with her family in the 1960s

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/ny...bout.html?_r=0

Sharon Washington would sit in her neighborhood library early in the evenings, perched on a short-legged chair sized for the children’s section, lost in the words and woodcut drawings of “The Red Fairy Book.” No one else would be around. The building was closed. The other kids had long since packed up their school bags. The librarians had gone home. It was just 8-year-old Sharon, alone, in the shush-less quiet of an empty building on Amsterdam Avenue.

[WildCardSteve1]

Originally Posted by Commander Beth

Did you know that public libraries in New York were originally built with complete apartment residences inside? The apartments were occupied by library custodians with their families and were used right up until 2006 when the last resident custodian died. Some of these apartments still exist.

This article includes great pictures of the Fort Washington Branch apartment

Inside the New York Public Library's Last, Secret Apartments | Atlas Obscura



And this is the story about a little girl who grew up in a New York library with her family in the 1960s

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/ny...bout.html?_r=0

WOW! What a great way/place to grow up.

[Commander Beth]

Originally Posted by WildCardSteve1

WOW! What a great way/place to grow up.

Right? It's almost like a kid's story.

These probably would have made the list for free/cheap/unusual ways to live in NYC, along with situations like being caretaker of Poe House.