May 21, 2020
Last Looks at the Old Alderman Library
• Anne E. Bromley, • • Sanjay Suchak, | University News
Although the iconic Rotunda was the University of Virginia’s first library, Wahoos of the past century got to know Alderman as UVA’s main library. The need for expansion of book acquisitions and research materials drove construction of the bigger building in 1937, funded in part by the Public Works Administration, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal relief programs.
The central University Library begins the third chapter of its history this spring with the onset of a major renovation to improve the structure’s layout and function and to update the HVAC, safety and other systems. The old building has never had such a substantial overhaul, although the “New Stacks” were added in 1966-67.
Before it transforms into a more modern facility – with some of its well-loved charm preserved – University photographer Sanjay Suchak captured the vacant structure that would’ve been crowded and vibrant for the past few months, even as preparations for the coming renovation started, had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plans call for Alderman Library to reopen by the 2023 spring semester. Follow updates and get more information here.
When contractors erected a construction barrier between the main library hall and the stacks, supervisors asked library employee Stephen Hoyle, who just earned his master’s degree in English and will continue working for the library this summer, to draw cartoons on the partition, having seen some of his work on Instagram. Hoyle was happy to oblige, he said, but he didn’t have time to finish his mural before the pandemic closed Alderman Library for the rest of the semester, a couple of months earlier than scheduled.
“I originally envisioned filling the wall with simple scenes of people interacting within the library. Having worked behind the front desk, I knew that Alderman was not merely a study spot,” Hoyle wrote in email. “It was a place where friendships began and developed, where interviews were held and careers took off and where relationships that would blossom into marriage first budded. I wanted to reflect that more personal side of the library.”
Along with those charcoal sketches in the middle-right of the wall, the rest of the drawings depict scenes from some of his favorite classics. Then he quoted the first sentences of well-known novels, alongside portraits of the authors, including from George Orwell’s “1984”: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
The demolition of the New and Old Stacks will start in June and finish in August, including the external work of removing the brick and marble façades of the New Stacks. The project will sort waste streams and divert as much to recycling as possible, with a minimum goal of 75%.
“We have already recycled over 120 tons of metal shelves,” Kit Meyer, senior project manager in Facilities Management, said.
The McGregor Room, a popular study spot on Grounds, has been quieter than usual this spring. Students who grew up with the bestselling series published by J.K. Rowling in 1997 started calling it the "Harry Potter Room” for its aura of the wizarding school, Hogwarts.
The McGregor Room was used in some time periods for special events, featuring well-known writers and visitors including William Faulkner, W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Taylor and her then-husband Sen. John Warner, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Seamus Heaney.
It remained a top study spot and was on many a fourth-year bucket list. One guestbook entry said, “Love it. Would move in if it had a shower.”
The McGregor Room will be restored on the second floor, where it has always been, but there will be other changes to that floor. The Stettinius Gallery, for instance, will connect Alderman to Clemons Library with a new passageway on that level.