I want to be a part of it…New York, New York!!!

We just got back from a long weekend in NYC. One of the first places we visited was the New York Library on 5th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The Beaux Arts architecture is just beautiful. Check out those columns and the sculptures in the frieze. There is Parker in the blue sweater.

Before you walk up the steps, you have to pass between two lion sculptures.

It didn’t hit us until we walked between the lions that that is where the show, “Between the Lions” got it’s name. Ahhhhhh, I get it! My boys used to love that show! The New York Library started as a consolidation of the libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox. It was through a $5.2 million donation to the New York Library System by Andrew Carnegie that the marble library building would be able to be constructed. Carnegie’s largess funded about 1,500 libraries around the country. We were first introduced to a Carnegie Library when we stopped in Eufala, Alabama on the way to the Gulf Coast last summer.

On the second floor there is a big hall right outside the reading rooms where there are gorgeous murals. Check out the stonework and carved doors. We were blown away by the craftsmanship. The millwork is just incredible.

This carved ceiling was amazing. How awesome is this light fixture?

Here is another mural on a ceiling on the second floor. Incredible!

I love this huge lantern in the stairwell.

Here is me and Parker in front of the giant tree in the lobby. Isn’t it festive?