CHAPTER XVI.
_Beyond Murray Hill_ Stretches of the Avenue--The Public Library--Temple Emanuel--The Draft Riots--The Coloured Orphan Asylum--The Willow Tree Inn--Remaining Residences--Clubs of the Section--As Seen by Arnold Bennett and Henry James--Three Churches and a Cathedral--The Elgin Botanical Gardens--Old Land Values.
O beautiful, long, loved Avenue, So faithless to truth and yet so true.
-- _Joaquin Miller._ On the site of the old Croton Reservoir the cornerstone of the Public Library was laid November 10, 1902, and the building opened to the public May 23, 1911.

To it were carried the treasures of the Astor Library on Lafayette Place, and the Lenox Library at Fifth Avenue and Seventieth Street.

Designed by Carrere and Hastings, the Library was built by the city at a cost of about nine million dollars.

It is three hundred and ninety feet long and two hundred and seventy feet deep, the material is largely Vermont marble, and the style that of the modern renaissance.

The lions that guard the main entrance from the Fifth Avenue side are the work of E.C.Potter.