The Stone Avenue Library in Brownsville has a new garden. New York Restoration Project, the nonprofit that builds and cares for green spaces around the city, turned the branch's outdoor space into a garden with trees, shrubs, more than 300 perennials and places to sit, and Brooklyn Public Library cut the ribbon on it this month.

What is in the garden

According to the library, the new space includes:

  • new trees and shrubs, and more than 300 perennials,
  • two trellises,
  • five benches,
  • a shade structure,
  • and a two-barrel rain collection system.

NYRP built it with volunteers through its Gardens for the City program. The ribbon cutting brought together Assemblymember Latrice Walker, Brooklyn Public Library President and CEO Linda E. Johnson and Jason Sheets of NYRP.

Money for programs, too

At the ceremony, Assemblymember Walker announced $60,000 for programs at three Brownsville-area branches: Stone Avenue, Brownsville and Saratoga.

A library with a history

Stone Avenue opened on September 24, 1914, as the Brownsville Children's Library, built to relieve overcrowding at the nearby Brownsville branch. Brooklyn Public Library describes it as believed to be the first library in the world devoted exclusively to children, and it was one of the last Carnegie libraries built in Brooklyn. For its 100th birthday in 2014, the city's Department of Design and Construction renovated it, adding a life-sized chess set, new furniture and lighting, and a Word Wall of early-reading words.

The garden gives the branch an outdoor room to go with all of that: somewhere to read on a bench, to hold a story time in the shade or to sit with a book from the shelves inside.

Visiting

The Stone Avenue Library is at 581 Mother Gaston Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY 11212, and the phone number is 718-485-8347. Hours:

  • Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Tuesday: 1 to 8 p.m.
  • Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Sunday: closed

The 3 train stops nearby on Livonia Avenue, and the B14 and B60 buses serve the branch.

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