University Archives, Collection C: 1/83/15
The North Elevation looks that same today as it did in 1915.
University Archives, Collection C: 1/83/15
This is the view looking from Hitt Street. Today the 1958 addition to the library blocks this side of the building entirely, but there is a picture (below) before the addition was erected. From left to right are the Book Stacks (peach), the connecting hall (green), and the main building (blue). The numbering of the Books Stacks is difficult to read, but there is a ground floor, 1st floor, 1st A floor, 2nd floor, 2nd A floor, and 3rd floor. This explains the strange numbering in the current West Stacks, which were build to connect to these central stacks.
In the main building (blue) the outlined door on the second floor is the east door to the Reading Room. It is hard to read, but the plan says: "Brick walls inside of dotted lines to be laid without bond to rest of wall for future removal". The 1915 Library was designed so that side additions could be attached later.
University Archives, Collection C 1/40/1 (enlarged)
This picture was taken in the forties or fifties before the east addition was put up, but it shows what the east side of the Library looked like when it was built. The stacks (white) are on the left. The hallway that connects the stacks to the main building is to the right. You can make out the oriel window on the second floor. The main building is on the right. The two vertical windows with lintels are the 2nd and 3rd floor hallways. The windows will become doors when the east addition is constructed. The lower window with a lintel above it is at the end of 1st floor hallway. That window will likewise become a a doorway when the East Addition is constructed. To the right is another window. That window is not interesting, but above it you can see a lintel embedded in the wall. That lintel marks the closed doorway on the east wall of the General Reading Room. When the East Addition is finally built, those bricks will be removed and a door from the General Reading Room to the east stacks opened.
There is no photograph of the west side of the building before the West Addition was put up, but from the architectural plans we know that it was a mirror image of the east side.
University Archives, Collection C: 1/83/15
This is the view looking from 9th street. It is now blocked by the West Addition put up in 1935. This side also had instructions about the door which would lead from the Reading Room to the West Wing. The windows with lintels above them are were the corridors on the ground level, and the second and third floor are located. These window were later turned to doors for entry into the West Wing.
University Archives, Collection C: 1/83/15 (color added to aid identification)
This is south facade of the library, what you would see looking from the current Student Center. The north entrance and Exhibition Lobby are in the middle in green. The hallway that runs from the main building to the book stacks would have been here as well. The windows on either side of the green also belong to the Exhibition Hall on the first floor, the Delivery Room (circulation) on the second floor, and the Cataloging Room on the third floor.
The stairwells, in yellow, had windows at the half floors and slightly jutted out from the rest of the building. Outside the stairs were the women's coat room and toilet on the left and the men's coat room and toilet on the right (marked in the blue) with two windows. The seminary rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floor above also had windows.
University Archives, Collection C 1/141/6
This picture was taken after the construction of the West Wing in 1936, but it shows how the back of the 1915 Library looked. On the left is the flat white wall of the original book stacks. To the right is the connecting hall. The oriel window on the second floor is easy to make out. Where the hallway meets the building it is slightly inset and there are windows. On the first floor they let light into the Exhibition Lobby. Right of them, jutting out a foot or two is the east stairwell. Three windows were located at the the second landing of each staircase. To the right of the staircases, slightly inset, is where the men's coatroom and toilet were located on the 1st floor. A seminar room and consultation room were located on the second and third floors.
Amazingly, some of the 1915 south facade still exists.
When the 1958 east addition was made, the west light shaft was
turned into a mechanical room and a roof was put over it.
This photo and the following photos were taken in the
mechanical room behind the west stairs.
This is a picture of the windows for the women's coat room.
Behind the steam pipes and the concrete pillar on the right you can see the spaces for three windows. These windows were in the the west staircase. They are high on the wall because they were located about 2/3s up the staircase.
