ONE good idea in 1930 is still a good idea in 2024. The New York Public Library is an organization with 92 branches and more than 50 million lendable and/or consultable books, periodicals and other data carriers.
When this library bus was passing through the city, the Main Branch on Fifth Avenue had been in existence for just under 20 years. The Main Branch, one of Manhattan’s most iconic buildings, was designed by architect Thomas Hastings. He was the son of Fanny de Groot, descendant of Jaap de Groot of Gouderak.
Thomas designed not only the library, but also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia, the legislative offices around the US Capitol, and the monumental Manhattan Bridge, slightly off-parallel to Brooklyn Bridge. That one, by the way, was built by Emily Roebling who hailed from families in Beesd and Middelburg that, by the end of her life, she wrote a book about.
