This is an iHeart Podcast. I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people.
If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News.
Reporting for America. Hear that? That's what it sounds like when you plant more trees than you harvest. Work done by thousands of working forest professionals, like Adam, a district forest manager who works to protect our forests from fires. Keeping the forest fire resistant, synonymous with keeping the forest healthy.
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Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There. The last one.
Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that Refreshes. You heard it before many times. Water is life. But do you know that almost half of the homes on the Navajo Reservation do not have clean running water? With your support, St.
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Selection varies by location while supplies last. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. John Fiedler had a better deal than most New York City superintendents. He was the first super for the New York Public Library main branch. the famous Schwartzmann Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
Their backyard was Bryant Park. A 1913 article in the New York Times noted that before moving into the library, Fiedler had worked as a merchantman, dabbled in prize fighting, and studied engineering at Harvard. Notably, the 1913 article focused on his new invention, an air purifier that promised to suck everything from arsenic. iron particles. out of the air.
Our audience loved Kristen O'Donnell Tubb's wonderful story from her historical fiction book, John Lincoln Clem. Civil War drummer boy.
So we asked if she would share another story with us. Here she is telling the story of the family that lived. in the New York Public Library. Once upon a time, a girl was born inside a library. And not just any library, the the New York Public Library.
Yep, the big famous building on 5th and 42nd, the one with the lions out front. The date was May 8, 1917. Two French dignitaries happened to be visiting the library that week, Prime Minister Rene Viviani and Marshal Joseph Joffre. The girl's parents were stumped for a name for their daughter, and a guest at the party suggested. Combining these two dignitaries' names.
And so the girl born inside the NYPL became. Viviani, Joffre. Feedler. Viviani was the first daughter and third child of John and Cornelia Fiedler. John Fiedler was hired as the building superintendent when the iconic library was under construction.
He, Cornelia, and their two sons, John Jr. and Edward, moved into the library in July 1910. Ten months before the library opened to the public, on May 23, 1911. They lived in an eight-room apartment on the mezzanine level of the library. This apartment is where Viviani was born, and she's thought to be the only child ever born inside the building.
The footprint of the apartment is still there today. Fiviani, Edward, and John Junior had quite a childhood inside those marble walls. They later recounted stories of playing baseball inside the library using books as bases. The library often hosted dignitaries at lavish parties inside the stunning building, and when Viviani was six she recited poetry to Queen Marie of Romania in the children's collection. Because they were not allowed to have pets, John Jr.
once trapped pigeons on the roof. Until the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals caught wind of this and requested he free them. Viviani and her friends would slide down the banisters and play hide and seek among the library's priceless marble statues while her brothers played war in the basement. and once A thief was caught trying to steal a rare $10,000 stamp collection from a library display. And to prevent his three children from getting into too much mischief in the late-night library.
He told his kids in his distinct Bowery dialect. That the library was haunted by a man killed during construction. Viviani later told the New Yorker magazine that the library is, quote, like a big marble grave at night after the cleaners are gone. The idea that the NYPL is haunted is now quite entrenched in the building's history, and the opening scene of the original Ghostbusters movie pays homage to that belief. Peter?
At 1:40 p.m., at the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, 10 people witnessed a free-floating, full-torso-vaporous apparition. It blew books off shelves from 20 feet away and scared the socks off some poor librarian. I'm very excited. I'm very pleased. I want you to get right down there, check it out, and get back to me.
No, no, get right back to me. Peter, you're coming with us on this one. Spengler went down there, he took PKE valances, went right off the top of the scale, buried the needle. We're close on this one, I can feel it. John Jr.
told The New York Times years later, quote, There was some basis for the legend. ten men died in the nine or ten years it took to build the Central Library. The Reading Room Ghost Was one who had fallen from the scaffolding when they were putting in the reading-room ceiling. At least. That's the way father told it.
The elder, John Fiedler, was also an inventor and worked with Thomas Edison. His workshop in the basement is still there today. He called it his private laboratory. He was known to have quote dabbled in plastics long before the word got into the dictionary. The Fiedler children had many friends in the area.
Some of them lived in the Algonquin Hotel, some in Rogers Pete department store, this group of friends truly had a unique playground. Viviani lived in the library until she was fifteen years old. leaving when she got married. John Junior took over as the building superintendent from his father, retiring in June 1949. All told, the Feedlers lived inside the New York Public Library.
for thirty-eight years. You can read more about the Fiedler family and their adventures inside the New York Public Library in two books about their lives, The Story Collector and its sequel, The Story Seeker. And a special thanks to Kristen O'Donnell Tubb. Her storytelling and what a gig What a beautiful way to grow up. The reading room may be my favorite place in all of New York City.
I can't tell you how many hours I spent there as a boy. Just love the place. And that reading room, well you're gonna read. The Story of John Fiedler The family that lived in the New York Public Library here. on our American story.
Lee Habib here. As we approach our nation's 250th anniversary, I'd like to remind you that all the history stories you hear on this show are brought to you by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And Hillsdale isn't just a great school for your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well. Go to Hillsdale.edu to find out about their terrific free online courses. Their series on communism is one of the finest I've ever seen.
Again, go to hillsdale.edu and sign up for their free and terrific online courses.
Okay, only ten more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that...
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