Marcy Branch began in 1899 as the Tompkins Park Free Library- a small Grecian-style building in the middle of the Tompkins Park. When it became part of the Brooklyn Public Library system in 1901, a library historian noted "because of the building's small size, it was considered desirable to have a small librarian and, for many years, petite Miss Edith Patridge filled that role." By 1969 the quaint building in its unusual setting had proved too small and it was closed. In the same year, the current Marcy Branch, opened.