This is one of the New York Public Library’s last secret apartments. When these libraries were built, about a century ago, they needed people to take care of them. Andrew Carnegie had given New York $5.2 million, worth well over $100 million today, to create a city-wide system of library branches, and these buildings, the Carnegie libraries, were heated by coal. Each had a custodian, who was tasked with keeping those fires burning and who lived in the library, often with his family.

Subscribe for more videos like this: https://trib.al/GD9qhdX

See our latest video on the secret world of Boston’s signs here: https://youtu.be/DDq8wGlyc9o

Read more about the library apartments here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles…

[…]