The grand opening of the new Van Cortlandt library, a quarter mile from its old site, took place on July 15, having officially closed its former smaller premises in June. 

To mark the occasion, colorful helium balloons swayed in the summer breeze and attendees tucked into a celebratory buffet while a human-sized, furry lion mingled playfully among staff, children, visitors and elected officials including Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Councilman Andrew Cohen, and Congressman Adriano Espaillat. 

“This was in the making for many years,” said Dinowitz.

The new library, once a two-story apartment residence, is twice the size of the former one, providing 5,800 square feet of public space. Features include an adult reading room and separate community room, more computers and laptops, on-site programs in dedicated programming rooms, classes, workshops for all ages, charging stations for personal devices at tables, multiple public restrooms, a water fountain, an outdoor space and dedicated areas for teens and children.

“Not only is it a beautiful amenity but it’s been done in under a year, with community input. It was a team effort,” said Diaz of the new library, confirming that $600,000 had gone towards the Van Cortlandt Library project. 

Library manager Peter Pamphile, who was accompanied by his wife Stephanie and 8-year-old son Caleb, drew cheers from the crowd when he spoke ahead of the official ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

Speaking afterwards, he said, “I’m so excited for today. It’s been long in the making – just so proud to give this community a new library, and we know they’re going to love all the beautiful modern amenities, separate spaces for children, teens and adults, the community room, the bathrooms even – they’ll love them.” 

He added, “We have adult computer classes geared towards seniors and we’re looking to start a book discussion group now that we have the space to have it.” Did he have a favorite book growing up? “As a kid, I loved Caps for Sale, so that’s probably my favorite book if I had to go nostalgia-wise,” he said, smiling. 

To meet the literary needs of the library’s 58,000 annual visitors, a so-called bookmobile had been in circulation since June 20 until the new library was opened. 

Nicole Wallace has lived in the neighborhood for about eight years and was a frequent visitor of the former library, along with her six-year-old daughter, Elanor, who, she said, was sad that the former library was closing, worried about coming to the new library. 

“She said it’s going to be too big and she’s going to get lost but I think she’s pretty happy cause she sees now that they have a whole collection of her favorite books that the other library didn’t have,” said Wallace.  

Although the former library was only closed for about a month before the opening of the new building, Elanor took matters into her own hands and made her own library inside her house, lending and borrowing books with her sister. 

“I like The Magic Treehouse book and the Geronimo Stilton,” said Elanor when asked what type of books she likes to read. “They’re kind of easy.”

Joe Gordon, 89, is an engineer who worked previously with Cohen’s predecessor, Councilman Oliver Koppell, and was instrumental in seeing the construction of the new library finalized in conjunction with the city Department of Buildings, his former employer. “The trick was to get this under city ownership,” he said, confirming the title now resides with NYPL.  

“I feel pretty good,” he added, referring to his age. “I’ve built an awful lot of stuff in the City of New York. I built the Boba Plan, part of LaGuardia Airport, when I was young. I built the Van Wyck Expressway.” 

Andrew Berman, the library’s architect, was also present for the opening. “As you know, this building was built as housing, and so there were just long hallways and small apartments off these long hallways,” he said.  “I felt that the whole goal was to make a public place and to also make a building with dignity for the community and I hope that as the neighborhood gets to use it and appreciate it, they’ll agree that we accomplished that goal.”