Talk:Astor Library Building

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 (talk) 02:37, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

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The Astor Library Building

• ... that a New York City library building (pictured) hosts several theatrical stages? Source: Gray, Christopher (February 10, 2002). "Streetscapes/The Old Astor Library, Now the Joseph Papp Public Theater; Once It Held Many Pages; Now It Has Many Stages". The New York Times.
  • ALT1: ... that a New York City library building (pictured) later became a clubhouse, a shelter, and a theater? Source: "77th Division to Have Own Clubhouse Here". New-York Tribune. March 23, 1919. p. 12. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/10/realestate/streetscapes-old-astor-library-now-joseph-papp-public-theater-once-it-held-many.html Gray, Christopher (February 10, 2002). "Streetscapes/The Old Astor Library, Now the Joseph Papp Public Theater; Once It Held Many Pages; Now It Has Many Stages". The New York Times.]
  • ALT2: ... that at one point, the US Army put hundreds of beds in a New York City library building (pictured)? Source: "77th Division to Have Own Clubhouse Here". New-York Tribune. March 23, 1919. p. 12. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/10/realestate/streetscapes-old-astor-library-now-joseph-papp-public-theater-once-it-held-many.html Gray, Christopher (February 10, 2002). "Streetscapes/The Old Astor Library, Now the Joseph Papp Public Theater; Once It Held Many Pages; Now It Has Many Stages". The New York Times.]
  • ALT3: ... that in the 1880s, Astor Library patrons needed to get a letter of recommendation to get into the Astor Library Building's (pictured) shelves? Source: "Alcove Study in the Astor Library". New-York Tribune. March 22, 1883. p. 3
  • ALT4: ... that because the Astor Library Building (pictured) originally closed by sundown, its trustees recommended that patrons use other libraries? Source: '"To Remain Closed at night.; the Trustees of the Astor Library Finally Reach a Decision". The New York Times.
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/See the Old Lady Decently

Moved to mainspace by Epicgenius (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 797 past nominations.

Epicgenius (talk) 14:09, 21 May 2026 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Article is new enough, long enough. Hook facts are interesting; preference for ALT2 and ALT3. Image is of sufficient quality for DYK, free license. Copyvio tool spots only proper nouns... no close paraphrasing found.  — Chris Woodrich (talk) 22:04, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

GA review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Astor Library Building/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Epicgenius (talk · contribs) 19:19, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: EmergentAnarchy (talk · contribs) 22:09, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

---

For my pledge at Niall Horan. will finish tomorrow as it's like 11pm here.

1. Is it well written?

   A. The prose is clear, concise and understandable to an appropriately broad audience, and the spelling and grammar are correct:

   "The building has also been described as Italianate,[24][28] Venetian,[29] Florentine,[30] Romanesque Revival,[31] round-arched Rundbogenstil,[32][33] or German Renaissance in style." can we link florentine and German Renaissance? We link all the other style names
   "The library continued to receive criticism over the building's limited hours and access restrictions." this is the first mention of criticism, so “continued” doesn’t really make sense.

   Fixed both (see below). - EG

   B. It complies with the manual of style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation:

   no wording concerns, layout is nice, lead is good, there's no fiction or lists

2. Is it verifiable with no original research, as shown by a source spot-check?

   A. It contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline:

   there's an isbn error on source 83. is there a way to fix that?

   This sometimes happens with really old books where the ISBN is valid, but the citation module displays an error. I removed the ISBN to resolve the error. - EG

   B. Reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose):

   going to do spot checks tomorrow. ping me if i don't do in the next 24 hours

   C. It contains no original research:

   D. It contains no copyright violations nor plagiarism:

   Earwig gives about 25%, which is mostly just organisation names

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. It addresses the main aspects of the topic:

   has everything i'd expect for this type of article

   B. It stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style):

   no concerns on this

4. Is it neutral?

   It represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each:

   all opinions are attributed to a person or publication

5. Is it stable?

   It does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute:

   only recent edits are the nominator and some bots

6. Is it illustrated, if possible, by images?

   A. Images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content:

   all are creative commons or public domain.

   B. Images are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions:

   article is well illustrated, maybe shift a few pics to the left as the MOS suggests, but it's not a real issue

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

   still need to do spot checks

Thanks for the initial comments. I've added the links and rephrased "The library continued to receive criticism..." – Epicgenius (talk) 22:44, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

Spot checks

• 5 - The Astor Library (Public Theater) Building is at 425 Lafayette Street
• 8 - and a depth of 155+1⁄6 feet (47 m)
• 11 - "The building's site was historically part of the estate of German-American businessman John Jacob Astor, who acquired the land in 1803 between present-day Astor Place and Great Jones Street."
• 17 - "and there were over 20 publishers nearby by the 1880s"
• 35/34 - "The recessed central section rises four stories"
  • Noting now that i might do less checks than usual for this review. the web archive is down, so there's lots of sources i can't access. NYT is also difficult as i don't have a subscription, but sometimes i can check stuff before the paywall loads. I'm also out of free newspapers.com articles
• 37 - "There are loading docks, doors, and windows on the secondary elevations, which face west and east" N I can't find anything about east and west or doors here? I might be missing something
  • Oops. These were definitely supposed to be north and south (per the source). For "doors" the relevant text is north and south walls have historic sash, loading platform, and secondary entryways (I can change it if you think that can be helpful). Epicgenius (talk) 23:07, 5 September 2026 (UTC)

  Yeah i think this sentence needs modifying EmergentAnarchy (talk) 07:35, 6 September 2026 (UTC)

  @EmergentAnarchy, sounds good. I've done this. – Epicgenius (talk) 11:56, 6 September 2026 (UTC)

• 38/39 - "After the second annex (the north pavilion) was constructed, the original entrance in the south pavilion was replaced by a small brownstone stoop" I only have access to 39, but it does mention a brownstone approach to the library.
• 40 - "The stoop was cut back in 1912."
• 27/45 "The original section of the library had a marble staircase with 36"
• 49/50 "After the building became the Public Theater, the rear of the ground floor was initially used as offices"
• 52 - "which, with 299 seats, is the building's highest-capacity stage."
• 56 - "An expanded lobby mezzanine"
• 57 - "and an LED chandelier, displaying text from Shakespeare's plays, date from the 2010s renovation"
• 58/59 - "Since 2012, a lounge called the Library has been located within the mezzanine."
• 45 - "were spread across two levels, separated from the center of the room by railings."
• 72 - " later known as the Barbaralee Theater."
• 52 - "The Barbaralee Theater has about 275 seats,"
• 5/74 - "The Astor Library (Public Theater) Building's original tenant was the Astor Library."
• 79 - "The library's trustees obtained a 65-by-125-foot (20 by 38 m) plot of land on Lafayette Place for the library building that September"
• 80 - "This site abutted an Astor family residence"
• 81 - "On March 28, 1849, the trustees began soliciting plans for the construction of a purpose-built library building, collecting 30 proposals. Alexander Saeltzer was hired to design the building that December" - though the source says "about thirty", so i'd modify the phrase "collecting 30 proposals"
  • Fixed. - EG
• 88 - "the building remained closed for several more months to allow the masonry to dry."
• 44/63 - "Access to books was by application only;"
• 129 - "the NYPL received permission to erect its new Main Branch in Midtown Manhattan, which would replace the Astor and Lenox library buildings."
• 90/136 - "in preparation for the opening of its Main Branch."
• 166 - "That year, HIAS set up an office at the building to assist undocumented Jewish immigrants in gaining legal status."
• 177 - "and his grandfather, a Jewish immigrant, had once stayed there."
• 193 - "Papp's primary operation, the free-admission Shakespeare in the Park program... - offered to sell the city the building for $3.56 million"
• 243/244 - "Ennead Architects was hired to design the renovation."
• 248 - "During the project, the renovation campaign received another $2 million from the Ford Foundation"
• 251 - "two-thirds of which came from city funds" though i think it's slightly more than 2/3rds
  • Fixed. - EG

Almost everything looks fine, just a few minor tweaks needed before this passes

@EmergentAnarchy: Thanks, I appreciate it. I left a few replies above. Epicgenius (talk) 23:07, 5 September 2026 (UTC)

I'm happy with all the changes, and i've passed the article EmergentAnarchy (talk) 12:51, 6 September 2026 (UTC)