after the merger, which was relatively small compared to other library systems at the time. As a point of civic pride, the New York Public Library's founders wanted an imposing main branch. While the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Fifth Avenue branch were both located on prominent sites facing Central Park, there was no such site available for a main library building; furthermore, most of the city's libraries were either private collections or small branch libraries. Development Site and design selection Several sites were considered, including those of the Astor and Lenox Libraries. In March 1896, the trustees of the libraries ultimately chose a new site along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, because it was centrally located between the Astor and Lenox Libraries. At the time, it was occupied by the obsolete Croton Reservoir, remnants of which still exist on the library floor. The library's trustees convinced mayor William L. Strong to give them the reservoir site, after they gave him studies showing that the size of New York City's library collection lagged behind those of many other cities. Dr. John Shaw Billings, who was named the first director of the New York Public Library, had created an early sketch for a massive reading room on top of seven floors of book-stacks, combined with the fastest system for getting books into the hands of those who requested to read them. His design for the new library, though controversial for its time, formed the basis of the Main Branch. Once the Main Branch was opened, the Astor and Lenox Libraries were planned to close, and their functions were planned to be merged into that of the Main Branch. In May 1897, the New York State Legislature passed a bill allowing the site of the Croton Reservoir to be used for a public library building. The Society of Beaux-Arts Architects hosted an architectural design competition for the library, with two rounds. The rules of the competition's first round were never published, but they were used as the basis for later design competitions. Entrants submitted 88 designs, of which 12 were selected for a semi-finalist round and six went on to a finalist round. About a third of the designs, 29 in total, followed the same design principles outlined in Billings's original sketch. Each of the semifinalist designs were required to include specific architectural features,