Community and vision restore the John Stewart Memorial Library as the heart of campus

by Coleen Dee Berry, Photos by Fred Field

It’s been said that we need a “third place” in our lives—a space for community and interaction that is neither home or work. These third places, discussed in such books as Harvard Professor Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, are spaces where people congregate and build community. Convening places.

 

Third places can be cafés, parks, clubs, even barbershops. And libraries.

“People need a third place. They need a place where they can do intellectual exploration, but also to convene with each other,” said President Barbara K. Mistick. “That’s what the library is going to be for us. It’s going to be a big place to build community.”

Wilson’s renovated and expanded John Stewart Memorial Library was rededicated at a jubilant, campus-wide celebration held Friday, Oct. 23—90 years after the original Stewart Library was dedicated. It officially opened three months later, in time for the spring 2016 semester.

Thanks to the Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library project, the restored 1925 Stewart library building is again a jewel of the campus and the new learning commons, with its gleaming stone and glass façade and wide open spaces, is welcoming students to a different kind of library—one that serves as a hub of activity yet still functions as a place for study and reflection.

The completion of the project is not only a milestone for Wilson College—it’s a bellwether, according to Professor of English Larry Shillock. “I think it’s a historic moment, actually,” he said. “It’s a fitting symbol for the next 10 years of this college. It’s going to have a wonderful impact on all of us.” 

Students are excited about having a traditional library—Sarah’s Coffeehouse temporarily served that function for more than four years—for the first time since the spring 2011 semester. The Class of 2015 graduated without ever setting foot in the library and for the Class of 2016, the consensus is that “it has been a little challenging at times,” according to Class of 2016 President Katelyn Wingerd. “I think having that one space on campus is probably what we missed the most—just that one place that’s completely dedicated to academics and learning and research.”

“I like that each room has a stack (of books) in it,” Adele Reinoehl ’18 said at the rededication. “I’m a real book person—forget the e-books!  I have to open it, hold it in my hand and smell that great book smell to get the reading experience. So I love that all the books are back. And I really like the way they have merged the old with the new, that they were able to keep the old building and join it to the learning commons.”

Mistick, who oversaw the construction and renovation of several libraries during the 10 years she headed Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Library System before coming to Wilson, predicts a surge in library use. “I found that with every library we (built or renovated) in Pittsburgh, the minute that the library was finished, our number of cardholders would go up. Our circulation would go up. I think that’s exactly what we’re going to see here. We’re going to see more use of the library—physical use, more people in the library, but we’re also going to see more circulation of materials as well. That has been my experience.”

This is intended to be a core facility at the heart of the campus. I think it will totally transform the campus for a long, long time. - Benedict Dubbs, Lead Architect

Months of detailed planning went into the library project, with the programming needs of today’s users in mind, as well as the changing ways patrons use libraries today. In addition to spaces for quiet, heads-down study, the library houses reading areas and a children’s space; classrooms; conference, work and study rooms; a commuter lounge where adult students can hang out and relax; an art gallery, café and college store; and an outdoor plaza where professors can convene classes on pleasant days or members of the campus community might gather to hear a lecturer or musical performance. Staff offices and the academic support center will also be housed in the library.

“This is intended to be a core facility at the heart of the campus,” said principal architect Benedict Dubbs of Murray Associates Architects, Harrisburg. “I think it will totally transform the campus for a long, long time.”  

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The story of the renovation and expansion of the John Stewart Memorial Library goes well beyond programming and construction. With all of the issues that swirled around the project—the magnitude of need, the urgency, the setbacks and achievements, and the timing [both bad and good]—the “reimagined” library is already becoming part of Wilson College legend. 

It began in 2011 as a full-blown crisis, when the original library building’s interior basement walls had started to actually crumble after a massive heating system failure—and at a time when the College was welcoming a new president. Shortly after she arrived in July 2011, Mistick made her first major decision in closing the Stewart Library. Its functions were moved to Sarah’s Coffeehouse, with book collections housed off campus and a retrieval system put into place. The College also provided students with increased access to online databases and virtual books and periodicals. 

As the process of deciding how to deal with the library unfolded—whether to undertake a major capital improvement project shortly after the completion of the Leading with Confidence fundraising campaign—the College was in the midst of a tumultuous time of change, with the library serving at times as a point of disagreement. Yet just one month after the Board of Trustees approved the Wilson Today plan that would usher in a new era at the College, Marguerite Brooks Lenfest ’55 pledged a $3.6 million matching gift toward the $12 million project and ultimately, the library campaign became a resounding success. From start to finish, it took four and a half years.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this, to be honest,” said Camilla Rawleigh, vice president for institutional advancement, who directed the fundraising effort for the Reimagining the John Stewart Memorial Library project after joining Wilson in August 2012. 

By all accounts, one of the most remarkable aspects of the library project is the number of people—Wilson family and friends, primarily—who made financial contributions. An unheard-of 750 donors gave $12,225,431 for the project. “My guess is it’s probably as many individual donors as have ever given to a single [Wilson] project,” Rawleigh said. “It almost tripled the number of individual donors to the [Brooks] science center.”

The collective determination of the Wilson community was on full display throughout the library project, which was made all the more daunting because of a mandate from the Board of Trustees that $10 million of the $12 million price tag be in hand before construction could begin.

“It was an amazing effort,” said Kathleen Murphy, who retired in October after serving as library director for 16 years. “What’s really dramatic about it is the way the alums stepped up to the plate for that building so that it could be built and paid for before the doors opened. That doesn’t happen very often.”

The largest gifts to the library came from three alumnae/philanthropists—an initial $1.1 million from Thérèse “Terry” Murray Goodwin ’49, a matching gift of $3.6 million from Marguerite Lenfest ’55, and gifts totaling more than $3.6 million from Sue Davison Cooley ’44. Theirs were the largest gifts, but certainly not the only noteworthy contributions.

“One of the most extraordinary things was the number of reunion classes that designated their gifts to the library,” said Rawleigh. Among them was the Class of 1964, whose 50th reunion gift of $101,964 was the largest reunion gift in the history of the College. The Class of 1963 wasn’t far behind, making its reunion gift to the library of $80,550. And the Class of 1966 has already designated a reunion gift of $50,000 for the library.

“I think it was love of their alma mater,” Rawleigh said of the fundraising response. “People understood the magnitude of the need.”

Rawleigh first addressed the campus community about the library fundraising effort at an all-campus forum in fall 2012—just as the Commission on Shaping the Future of Wilson College was holding sometimes contentious public meetings outlining early parameters of the Wilson Today plan. It was an uneasy time, with the Great Recession affecting many and the Leading with Confidence campaign having ended not long before. 

Among those who came away from the campus forum somewhat skeptical, Shillock now calls the decision to move forward with the library renovation and expansion “an inspired leap of faith.”

“We knew it needed to be done, but my heavens … ” Shillock said. “That’s not an auspicious moment to begin something.”

But having worked at the College for 20 years, he had seen the indomitable will of the Wilson community before. “There is on this campus a shared sense of ‘we can do this,’ especially when it is something that speaks to our core mission,” Shillock said, adding, “I was really interested in what a 21st-century library would look like and I think the president was tremendously well-positioned, because of her previous experience, to help the College produce one.” 

And soon, donors started stepping up, providing much-needed momentum for the project. “People really answered the call,” said Rawleigh. “And I think they did in a way that was very, very powerful.”

One of the most pivotal moments for the library project was Lenfest’s $3.6 matching gift, which came in February 2013—only one month after the Board adopted the Wilson Today plan with its expansion of coeducation. “Once Marguerite came forward with her match, I think people who’d been sitting on the sidelines started to come around,” Rawleigh said. 

People really answered the call. And I think they did in a way that was very, very powerful. - Camilla Rawleigh, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Still, the project would face detours on its long road to completion. After initially approving the idea of tearing down an outdated, 1960s library annex, the Board wanted to step back and review the options for moving forward. Some members wanted to reuse the annex to keep costs down, while others agreed with the administration’s recommendation to raze and rebuild. 

“[Board members] really felt the need to be satisfied that it was a project that was within the scope of what we could afford to do,” said Mistick, who was convinced that the annex would never meet the needs of today’s educators and students.

After numerous presentations, cost-savings analyses and careful consideration of all options, the Board voted at its February 2014 meeting to release funding to tear down the annex and build the learning commons. Just before that vote, a dramatic $1.2 million gift was pledged by Cooley—her second in a month and a twist of fate that quite possibly convinced the Board to move forward with the new learning commons. 

“At the end of the day, what happens in all that process time is that everybody gets a chance to come along on the journey, and that’s really important,” said Mistick “That can be frustrating, but it’s important to let that process happen.” 

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Once the final design was approved, the College moved quickly, hiring contractor R. S. Mowery & Sons of Mechanicsburg as general contractor. Mowery, which had served in the same capacity for the Brooks Complex, began preliminary work, including demolition and excavation, in May 2014 and construction began that August, according to project manager Steve Switzer. 

He said in total, approximately 350 people worked on the project over the course of the project, including employees from about two dozen subcontractors. “The maximum number of people who worked on the project at one time was probably around 70,” Switzer said.

Despite a frigid winter in 2014-15 and the need to pour concrete floors and cast-in-place concrete supports during that time, construction was able to move forward, thanks to reinforced plastic tenting, concrete “blankets” and temporary heaters to keep temperatures up while the concrete set. “We poured the structure from November through most of March,” said Switzer.

The library project included some interesting features and challenges [see related stories about the stone used in the learning commons and the restoration of the leaded glass windows in the original building]. One involved how to line up the old and new buildings, while creating higher ceilings in the learning commons. To address the issue, the learning commons is situated so that its bottom floor is 30 inches lower than the original building. “We manipulated floors to get higher spaces [in the learning commons],” Dubbs said. “It was a challenge, but also a wonderful opportunity to make that connection work. It has a nice flow to it.”

The 1925 Stewart building still houses its historic bookcases and Gothic-inspired tables. But colorful, modern carpet tiles were used in the building. “That was very intentional,” said Dubbs. “It was to bring some modern design elements into the lower level of the original building … so we would actually start to blend the two buildings together.”

Some of the most visible aspects of the restoration of the Stewart building are a new slate roof and the replacement of missing and/or damaged cast-stone turrets with finials, as well as restoration of the concrete façade at the entrance and the use of more period-appropriate doors.

“I really feel that when you look at the building now, with all the restoration work, it’s very close to what it looked like in [1925],” Dubbs said.

The learning commons, on the other hand, has a different feel and, when the two are taken together, the space is irresistible. “It is contemporary space. It’s bright, it’s inviting,” Mistick said. “People are going to want to be there. That just makes a huge difference.” 

The library is brightly lit, using a combination of energy-saving LED lighting and fluorescent lights. At least some of the lights will be left on at night so the library “will glow like a beacon at the center of campus,” Dubbs said.

At the October rededication ceremony, students, faculty, staff and alumni exploring it for the first time gave the library an emphatic stamp of approval. “I’ll have to come back and see what it is like here when the students are using it, to see if they will make good use of this wonderful space that they have been given,” Rose Gerke ’59 said. “It certainly is a beautiful facility,” added her friend, Jane Fox ’59.

For sophomore Bassil Andijani, the library is a pleasing combination of old and new, but more importantly, it provides something that had been missing on campus. “I think this will help create a great, serious study atmosphere at Wilson. You didn’t get that, that much at the coffeehouse,” he said. 

Students and faculty are especially excited about how the library will strengthen the academic program, according to Shillock. “The president talks about it as the beating heart of the institution,” he said. “It’s also the working brain of our community. It’s where ideas wait to be mobilized.”

The library will be overseen by Murphy’s replacement, Associate Vice President for Technology and Library Services José Dieudonné. Dieudonné’s position, created under a $2 million federal Title III grant the College announced in fall 2014, supervises information technology and academic support services, as well as the library.

The library is open every day from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and during finals, it will stay open until 2 a.m., according to Dieudonne, who said the learning commons assistant, a full-time staffer, will work evenings and weekends, along with trained student workers. 

Although today’s libraries rely heavily on online databases and ebooks, Dieudonne plans to add to the library’s collection – judiciously. He said he will consult with students and especially faculty to develop what he calls “patron-driven acquisitions” of books that will be more useful companions to courses and as research tools. But he is quick to add, “[The library is] not there to build collections. We’re going to build community in that building. It’s an exciting moment.” 

Coleen Dee Berry contributed to this article.