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Virtual Historical Tour
23.
Libraries
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to Libraries List
In
1901, W.D. Butterfield of Detroit was the architect selected by the
College Building Committee to furnish plans for the
Lottie L.
Gassette Memorial Library. Mrs. Charlotte T. Gassette made the gift
for the library to the College as a memorial to her deceased daughter, a
former student at Albion. Lottie Gassette left Albion during her junior
year to work in a normal school in the west. After completing her work
there, she held positions as principal in the high schools of
Leavenworth, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids and Marshall, Iowa.
She died in 1899.
The library had
previously been housed in the Central Building.
The new site was located between the chapel and the
McMillan Laboratory, with the building's main
front towards Porter Street.
The S.O.
Knapp Alcove was added to the building through funds donated by Mrs. S.O.
Knapp of Jackson, whose husband had been a well-known citizen of Albion;
as well as the James S. Smart Alcove, a gift from Mrs. Louise Soule of
Stockbridge. Only a small amount of the money they donated to the
College was necessary for the alcoves, so the remainder of the funds
were used in fitting out the library with furniture. Everything in the
building was to be new, including bookcases, tables, chairs and reading
desk.
The dedication of the Library was attended by Mrs.
Gassette; President Dickie; Reverend W.T.
Jacquess; Rev. John Graham of Grand Rapids and Reverend Levi Master of
Big Rapids, both trustees of the College; Honorable Horace Hitchcock of
Detroit, president of the Board of Trustees; and Mr. H.H. Johnson of the
senior class. The Class of 1898 presented an elaborate card catalogue
to be placed in the library.
 In
1923, the ground floor furniture was rearranged and a stack room was added
on the central balcony, providing twice the reading room. Four
300-watt ceiling lamps and a new cement floor in the east half of the
basement were also added.
In 1927, several hundred dollars were spent to make
improvements on the library: a downstairs study room was completely
renovated and equipped with six large windows, heating and lighting
equipment and tables and chairs for more than 70 students. In
addition, a new stairway to the study room was built. Also in 1927,
Librarian Rose Ball
voiced a need for an expansion of the library in order to better
serve the departments on campus. The enlargement of the
library was estimated at $15,000 in 1927, but it was never built.
The Lottie L. Gassette Memorial Library was used until
1938, when the Stockwell Memorial Library
was completed. In 1998, the building was razed to make way for the new
Student, Technology, and Administrative Services Building, named after William C. Ferguson,
a current member of the Board of Trustees of Albion College, and once
Acting President of Albion during the 1995-96 academic year.
Click
on thumbnails for larger view
|
 "Albion
College Library, Albion, Mich." Photograph by Clement Rood,
not dated. |
 "Albion
College Library, Albion, Michigan." Photograph by G.S. & F.C.O.,
n.d. |
|
 "Final
Chapter" from the Citizen Patriot, 1998. Photographs by
J. Scott Park. |
 "Library,
Albion College, Albion, Mich." Photograph by Pearson & Allberg
Co., Minneapolis, n.d. |
The Seeley G. Mudd Learning
Center and the Stockwell Memorial Library are the current homes to the College's large collection of
books and journals, as well as the College Archives, rare books collections, and
Archives for the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church.
 Madelon Stockwell,
donor of the funds for the Charles F. and Louisa
Peabody Stockwell Memorial Library, was born and raised in Albion. Her father,
Charles Franklin Stockwell, was the first Principal of the Wesleyan Seminary,
forerunner to Albion College. Charles was stricken with "gold fever"
during the California Gold Rush and unfortunately died of natural causes en
route to California. Madelon's grandparents, the Peabodys, were the first
non-Native American settlers in Albion.
Several years after graduating from Albion with a two-year
degree, Madelon decided to obtain a bachelor's degree from the University of
Michigan. Unfortunately for her, the University of Michigan did not accept
women. But Madelon would not take no for an answer, and finally succeeded in
enrolling. She became the first woman ever to attend the University. There is a
dormitory there named in her memory.
When Madelon Stockwell Turner died, she gave enough money to
Albion to build the Stockwell Memorial Library in honor of her parents.
The period of architecture represented by the building is Neo-Grecque, which was
developed during the early part of the nineteenth century in the midwest.
This was also the style used for North Hall and the Chapel building, two of the
original campus buildings from 1840. The architect for the library was
alumnus Frank E. Dean, '31. Because of its warmth of color, Ohio sandstone
was used for the stone work, rather than limestone. The brick exterior is
composed of hand made Virginia brick of the Jefferson size, which is larger than
ordinary bricks. The original roof was slate.
Madelon
also specified that her living room furniture, much of it
inherited from her mother, be permanently displayed. You can see this display on
the third floor of the Mudd building. Click
on thumbnails for larger view
|
 Stockwell Library Dedication Ceremony:
W. Clark Dean, Vice President of the Board of Trustees and Albion alumnus,
removing the first shovel-full of dirt.
He was followed by Dr. F.S.
Goodrich, as faculty representative and president of the
college when the Stockwell bequest was made. Miss Marian Adams,
librarian of the college, dug the final shovel-full of dirt. |
|
Reserve Room, n.d. |
Library Staff, ca. 1950. |
Assistance when you need it--then as now, n.d. |
Snowy Stockwell, n.d. |
Front entrance, n.d. |
n.d. |
n.d. |
Listening Lab, n.d. |
Listening Lab, n.d. |
Lobby with tile floor and incandescent light fixtures, n.d. |
Reference, n.d. |
Student
worker, 1978. |
Periodicals, n.d. |
Newspaper Room, n.d. |
Students in the tier study rooms, n.d. |
Students studying in hallway carrels, n.d. |
"Fish-eye" view of one of the tiers, n.d. |
"Fishy" reading, n.d. |
Entrance to tiers, n.d. |
Wendell B. Will Faculty Room, n.d. |
It is reported that the Seeley G. Mudd Foundation, which donated
the majority of the funds to build the Mudd Learning Center, wanted a separate
building rather than an addition to the Stockwell building; this explains the
bridge that links the two together. The Seeley G. Mudd Fund of Los Angeles
was established under the will of the late Dr. Seeley G. Mudd to construct
college and university buildings. Dr. Mudd, a cum laude graduate of
Harvard Medical School, died in 1968. He was a member of the cancer
research faculty at California Institute of Technology, specializing in
radiation and medical chemistry research. Dr. Mudd served as a member of
the board of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and was a trustee of many
educational institutions, including Stanford University and Pomona College.
More than 26 grants totaling over $37 million had been made to leading
institutions by the Seeley G. Mudd Fund in 1978. ("Albion College receives
grant for Mudd Center," Albion Recorder, June 28, 1978) The
$900,000 grant made to Albion was the largest grant, in proportion to the total
cost of the building, that the Fund had ever made; any remaining funds were to
come from Albion alumni, friends and other foundations.
Click on thumbnails for larger view
|
Seeley G. Mudd, n.d. |
Artist's
rendering of the Mudd Learning Center
addition to the Stockwell Library. |
Mudd
Dedication program. Image by Albion alum, Maggie LaNoue. |
"The loss of a letter." |
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