Tourist in Your Own Town - Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture In Harlem, the former West 135th Street Branch Library—built in 1904 by McKim, Mead & White—evolved from a Carnegie-funded public library into a cornerstone of Black cultural life. During the Harlem Renaissance, it became a gathering place for Black intellectuals, and in 1925, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg’s vast collection of African diaspora materials laid the foundation for what is now the Schomburg Center for Research in Bl