2 New Library Sentries Welcome With More of a Purr Than a Roar

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times They are not quite as regal as Patience and Fortitude, the famous lions on guard outside the main public library branch on Fifth Avenue. But these two lazy beasts have still been warmly welcomed at the library branch in Riverdale, the Bronx, where they arrived earlier this year.

There was no grand entrance at this library, no sweeping staircase to preside over, and certainly no tourists to pose with for photos.

Maybe that’s why this pair of stone lions was sleeping on the job.

The Bronx cousins to that grand pair on Fifth Avenue, Patience and Fortitude, could use a few pointers in looking lionly.

The lions, each weighing about 900 pounds, sprawled lazily on stone pedestals in the late afternoon sun on Wednesday, their eyelids closed to the busy stream of children and stroller-pushing mothers passing between them every few minutes to go in and out of the New York Public Library branch in Riverdale.

“Why are they sleeping” demanded Robert Ernau, 41, a subway cleaner, as he stopped to look at their faces. “Someone has to wake them up.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The sleeping lions need names.

The lions have been the subject of a monthlong naming contest among library patrons. More than 200 entries have been received, including Rest and Peace, Honor and Justice and, in a nod to Disney’s ever popular Lion King, Simba and Scar. The contest, which ends on Friday, will culminate in a naming ceremony on April 12.

The Bronx lions were relocated to the Riverdale library in January after their home of many years, the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, began undergoing an extensive renovation designed to “epitomize Manhattan sophistication.” The hotel decided that the lions, a fixture at the front of the hotel, were better suited elsewhere, and donated them to the public library. (James S. Tisch, chief executive officer of Loews, is also a member of the board of the New York Public Library.)

Library officials said that the Riverdale branch, which circulates about 12,000 books and DVDs a month, had ample space for the lions. “It’s a very popular branch,” said Amy Geduldig, a spokeswoman for the library. “It does a lot of good in the community and we thought our patrons there would appreciate it.”

As for the history of the lions, that remains a mystery even to their previous owner, with no record of who carved them or why. Still, Lark-Marie Anton, a spokeswoman for the Loews hotel, noted that “they were fond members of the family and we’re ecstatic that we’ll be able to visit them in their new home.”

The lions have company at the Riverdale library, joining two (live) goldfish inside who have been named Goldi and Locks by children.

Though the Bronx lions are much smaller than the lions that have stood sentry outside the main library branch on Fifth Avenue for over a century, and are rough-hewn stone instead of polished Tennessee marble, they have been welcomed with open arms. Indira Urbano, 10, said she hugged first one lion and then the other when it appeared two days later. “When I walk in, I always look at them,” she said.

Jesse Scaturro/Loews Hotels The lions formerly guarded the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue. Jonathan Tisch, the Loews chairman, posed with a lion and a symbolic sledgehammer shortly before the lions’ removal as part of an ongoing renovation.

Jackson Spence, 9, said he came up with the name Honor to go with his 5-year-old sister’s suggestion of Justice for the lions. Their mother, who grew up on the Upper West Side, has told them about visiting what she called the Lions’ Library, referring to the Fifth Avenue branch. “It used to be plain here,” Jackson said. “This kind of brings it to life a little more.”

Jackson’s mother, Anna Spence, added that naming the lions would weave them into the fabric of the neighborhood. “It personalizes the library more,” she said. “We’re sort of a small town in Riverdale and the library is our hub.”

But still there were the inevitable comparisons.

Gabriel Hallinan, 19, a student at Hunter College, said he did not notice the lions at first because they were rather unimpressive. “You always wish if you had lions at your library, they would be more upright,” he said. “They looked not so much virtuous as sleepy.”

But Aaron Hasson, a teacher, said it was a nice touch that the lions had not gone to waste even if they were not exactly up to guarding the Riverdale library.

“Sometimes, you get tired and just want to relax and have a little catnap,” Mr. Hasson, 69, said. “I know where they’re coming from.”