Dates: Groundbreaking: June 10, 1896 – Cornerstone set: September 11, 1896 –
Dedication: June 8, 1897
Library moves in: late Aug/September 1897 – Completion (except for murals):
Nov/December 1897
The building was not completed when the Library moved in. In an announcement early in the fall semester it was noted that the Library would open limited hours until electricity was installed in the building. The East Reading Room was not completed until November.
Basement – now referred to as first floor
1A: Art Museum – included plaster busts that were purchased by Gregory, latter this area was outfitted with shelves and served as the ordering department and newspaper room. It latter became a single large lecture room for the Law School and is currently subdivided into offices and computer labs.
1B: This room latter served as the US Post Office and is now an office.
1C: Fan room – this room contained mechanical equipment including the fans for the building’s original forced air heating system.
1D: Cataloging and Receiving – this room served as the receiving and cataloging room and had an entrance to the stacks by the freight elevator. The part of the top step of this entrance can still be seen in the northeast corner of the stacks. This room is now a hallway.
1E: Electric freight elevator – This elevator was used to move books between floors of the stacks. The stacks also contained a smaller dumbwaiter. The elevator shaft is now used as a passage for ventilation and water pipes through the stacks.
1F: This room originally was outfitted with lockers for students. It latter was used by the Library. It has also served as a lecture room and is currently subdivided into computer labs and networking equipment.
First floor – now referred to as second floor
2A: West Reading Room
2B: Conversation Room – Map Room – Librarian’s Office
2C: Rotunda – The delivery room has been modified from it’s original state by the relocation of the circulation desk, addition of airconditioning units, and the creation of the clerk’s office. Additional changes include the removal of the stained glass dome and skylight, and installation of plastic walls around the upper hallway. Most of the stenciling in this area remains; however, some has been lost along with all of the original work in the reading rooms and upper hall around the rotunda.
2D: Current Periodicals Room – This room has been subdivided into offices and currently houses the Mathematics Undergraduate Studies offices.
2E: East Reading Room – The East Reading Room was blocked off by the 1956 addition’s need for a hall to the front of the building. The room is currently the Mathematica computer lab.
2F: Librarian’s Office – The office is now a Men’s Room and hallway to connect the east addition.
Second floor – now referred to as third floor
3A: West Wing – This area originally held the offices of the University Business Manager (Prof. Samuel W. Shattuck, portrait is in Mathematics Library Reading Room) and the University Registrar. The large fireplace is gone but the safes that were in these offices still remain. Some of the walls were latter removed to open the area to hold classes for the Library School. The area currently has once again been divided into smaller offices for the Mathematics Department.
3B: President’s Private Office – This office was the private office of Presidents Draper and James. This room is now a professor’s office.
3C: President’s Reception – The reception room was were the President would meet with guests. This room is now an office shared by a professor and graduate students.
3D: President’s Anteroom – The anteroom, located at the top of both stairs from the entrance, would be where guests of the President would enter. Doors from this room lead to both the President’s Reception Room and the Trustees’ Room. This room is now a professor’s office.
3E: Trustees’ Room – The Trustees’ Room is where the Trustees would hold their meetings. This room also contained portraits of Prof. Burrill and others. This room has been divided with the majority being converted into the department’s commons area while a smaller portion has been closed off to form a professor’s office.
3F: Library School – The east wing contained offices and seminar rooms for the Library School.
3G: Library School – The upper level of the stacks wing was used as the main lecture room for the Library School until it was needed for stacks expansion. The stacks wing was designed to have five levels but only three were outfitted when the building was constructed. The fourth level had a hardwood floor with stairs leading down to the stacks. The fifth level would be an additional floor (glass) added into the room at a latter time.
Building Additions
The 1914 addition extended the original stacks and added the a floor in them. The 1919 addition was originally completed without stone (brick exterior). This addition contained a new loading dock, elevator, and four floor of stacks with a workroom above. The 1926 addition built onto the 1919 addition, adding to the stacks and the exterior stone. The top level of this addition and the 1919 addition was split into the cataloging and acquisitions departments. This area has since been divided into professors’ offices. The Senior Memorial Chime was installed in the Library Tower in 1920.
When the Library relocated to the new building, Library Hall was divided between the Mathematics Department and Law School. The Law School took possession of the original and 1914 addition portions of the building and the Mathematics Department took the 1919 and 1926 additions, with the parts being renamed Law Building and Mathematics Building respectively. The loading dock area was converted into an atrium that had entrances on both the east and west sides. The original stained glass dome in the rotunda was removed in the early forties, being replaced by a plaster dome with the names of those who served as the U.S. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to that date. When the Law School moved out in the mid-1950’s, the Mathematics Department took over the building. The final addition, constructed in 1956-57, created classrooms along the east side of the building, resulting in the blocking of many windows of the original structure and the enclosure of the East Reading Room. The skylight that had been over the stained glass dome was also removed at that time.