The Pelham Parkway-Van Nest branch of The New York Public Library is a modern building with a distinctive facade. It is located around the corner from the busy shopping district on Lydig Avenue. This one-story facility houses adult, teen, and children's collections, as well as extensive World Languages collections, featuring books in Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and many other languages. Programs and classes for people of all ages are offered daily in the glass-enclosed community room.
The history of the branch goes back to 1912, when it was first established as a station of NYPL's Travelling Libraries program, bringing library books to neighborhoods that didn't yet have branches. The Van Nest sub-branch opened in 1917, and occupied a series of small, but progressively larger storefront locations around the neighborhood, until it moved to its current location in 1968. Since then, it has variously been known as Van Nest-Pelham, Van Nest, and, since 2014, as Pelham Parkway-Van Nest.
Library Hours:
Sunday Closed
Monday 10 AM–7 PM
Tuesday 10 AM–7 PM
Wednesday 10 AM–7 PM
Thursday 10 AM–7 PM
Friday 10 AM–5 PM
Saturday 10 AM–5 PM
