The Lower East Side: NY Public Library, Seward Park Branch - East Broadway, NYC - February 2009 . . . . . . This library is one of 65 branches built with funds donated to the NYPL by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Designed by Babb, Cook and Welch in the Renaissance Revival style, it opened in 1909. Because the area was once so over-crowded and books were in such great demand, patrons were originally allowed to sit and read on the roof of the building.