University Library Building Dedicated on Lowry Street
On January 6, 1916, a new library building at the University of Missouri was dedicated. Known as Ellis Library since 1972, it was the first building on campus built specifically as a library. In fact, there were two libraries sharing one building: the Library of the University and the Library of the State Historical Society of Missouri. The main entrance fronted Lowry Street (now Lowry Mall) and was designed by the St. Louis firm, Jamieson & Spearl, the architects of many other university buildings and Columbia homes. The library and Lowry Mall are the central, connecting link between the older Red Campus surrounding Francis Quadrangle, and the younger White campus marked by Memorial Union, another Jamieson & Spearl project. The library was built with funds from the State of Missouri. Several prior attempts had been made to secure a dedicated building, but it was University President Albert Ross Hill who would finally succeed. During the 1800s the library was housed in Academic Hall. During the American Civil War Union soldiers, who were using the library as a guard room, took 467 volumes to kindle fires. University Librarian, Joseph Norwood assessed the loss at $1100. But the true devastation occurred during the great fire of 1892 that destroyed Academic Hall, leaving The Columns. It burned the entire collection, except for around 200 volumes that were out on loan. For three years, the remaining books were stored in the Medical Building, until the completion of New Academic Hall (now Jesse Hall) in 1895. In 1916, when the oldest, core, part of Ellis Library we know today was dedicated, emphasis was placed on its “fireproof” construction.
The main facade of the New Library Building in 1921 from near Lowry Street
From the University Archives, University of Missouri: C:0/52/1 MU in Brick and Mortar
In the dedication book for the library building written in 1915, architects Jamieson & Spearl state:
“The architecture of the building is that of the English Renaissance. Perhaps the nearest prototype is the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, dating from the second half of the seventeenth century. The reading room is marked by an Ionic colonnade standing on a solid rusticated first story. An appropriate base is contemplated in the form of a wide terrace enclosed by balustrades.”
That legendary English library, designed by architect Christopher Wren and completed in 1695, is depicted below.
A circa 1840 steel engraving of the Wren Library at Trinity College Cambridge
From Wikimedia Commons, originally published in Memorials of Cambridge, vol. 1, published 1847
Jamieson & Spearl further described the University of Missouri Library as follows:
“The building now completed and occupied forms the central portion of the whole Library as planned in 1912. The appearance of the exterior and the arrangement of the interior clearly indicate that additions are to be made. The flanking wings of the building will each add forty feet to the frontage, and they are to project forward of the present front line and to enclose the main colonnade marking the reading room. To the rear they extend far enough to overlap and be connected to the completed stack room which will then consist of three units similar to the one already erected. As the building stands on ample grounds it is quite possible to develop it to any reasonable size, if an increase in the original plan is found to be desirable. It may thus be found that the erection of the building at different times will prove rather fortunate than otherwise.”
And they were right. In the century since they wrote those prophetic words many expansions were undertaken. In 2016, the University of Missouri Libraries YouTube channel published a brief, but well-narrated, pictorial history. This video details the construction history of what became one of the largest and most complicated buildings on campus.
This CoMo 365 blog entry was constructed by Matt Fetterly using these sources:
Library of the State Historical Society of Missouri and the University of Missouri. (1915). The New Library Building. Accessed January 5, 2023.
Havig, Alan R. (1998). A Centennial History of the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1898-1998. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. p. 38-39. ISBN 9780826211699.
The Heart of the University: MU Libraries. University Archives. muarchives.missouri.edu/ Compiled March 2003 and revised 17 February 2005. Accessed January 5, 2023.
MU in Brick and Mortar: Ellis Library. University Archives. muarchives.missouri.edu/. Accessed January 6, 2023.
Weinberg, Steve; Cogswell, Jim; University of Missouri. (2016). A Place of Visions : One Hundred Years of the University of Missouri Libraries 1915-2015. Columbia Missouri: MU Libraries. ISBN 9780692659960.
University of Missouri Libraries Youtube Channel. (2016). A Pictorial History of Ellis Library 1915-2015. Accessed January 6, 2023.
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