Billings Memorial Library

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Billings Library
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Billings Memorial Library
General information
Address48 University Place
Town or city Burlington, Vermont
CountryUnited States
Coordinates 44°28′46″N73°11′57″W / 44.479315°N 73.199099°W / 44.479315; -73.199099
Completed1883
Owner University of Vermont
Design and construction
Architect(s) Henry Hobson Richardson

Billings Memorial Library is an academic library of the University of Vermont, located in Burlington, Vermont. Built in 1883, it was designed by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson [1] to resemble the Winn Library in Woburn, Massachusetts.

Contents

History

The library was donated to the University of Vermont by Frederick H. Billings, of Woodstock. It has been a central part of campus life since opening in 1885, [1] and despite the University's growth over the intervening century, it has remained architecturally similar to its original appearance. [1]

A new library, the Guy W. Bailey Library (now known as the Howe Library), was built by the university in 1961 due to a lack of space at Billings Library. [1] [2] The Billings Library was then converted to a student center in 1963. [3] After the building was determined to have been outgrown for student center purposes, the Dudley H. Davis Center was built and completed in 2007 to be the university's new student center. [4]

Thanks to an $11.4 million renovation completed in the summer of 2018, UVM's most architecturally significant building once again houses academic departments, including Special Collections, the Miller Center for Holocaust Studies, the Humanities Center, and the Center for Research on Vermont. [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Provost, David (December 2, 1999). "A Gem of Architecture: The History of The Billings Library". UVM. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  2. "Billings Student Center – History". uvm.edu. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  3. "Billings Library, University of Vermont by H. H. Richardson". bluffton.edu. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  4. "Student Center History". The University of Vermont. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
  5. "Billings Library: Past and Present" . Retrieved 11 November 2018.