Alumni Hall (Miami University)

An iconic building on Miami University’s Oxford campus, Alumni Library, also known as Alumni Hall, currently houses the university’s Department of Architecture and Interior Design and the Wertz Art and Architecture Library. This Lombardic Romanesque building built in 1910 celebrated its centennial in 2010.HistoryThe university, founded in 1809, initially housed its library in a room in Old Main, the main building on campus. As time passed and space ran out in Old Main, the university sought a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Corporation to build a new library on campus. On March 13, 1905 Andrew Carnegie offered the university a $40,000 grant if the university could match the amount with its own $40,000 towards the building. In 1908 the university finished raising the money and the building began. Frank Packard from Columbus, Ohio was hired as the architect and construction began in 1909. The building was inspired by Classical Roman architecture and when it opened in 1910, it consisted of a main reading room for 192 people, a periodical room, a few classrooms, faculty rooms a multi-tier stacks for 150,000 volumes.Building extensionsBy the end of 1911 all the shelf space for the library was full and planning began for an addition to the building. In 1922 funding from the university and the Carnegie Corporation enable an Eastern wing designed by Ralph Ridley to be added to the existing building. This addition included a main reference room, reading room and more stacks.