Volumes from the personal library of Charles Storrs
made up the first library collection of the Storrs
Agricultural School in 1882. Beginning with that
collection of a few hundred books, the University
Libraries now have more than 2 million volumes.
Over the years, the books have been housed in a
series of buildings, but most are now in the Homer
D. Babbidge Library on the Storrs campus. This
fall, the University community will celebrate the
25th anniversary of Babbidge Library.
The collection of Storrs's books and additional
volumes was first housed in Old Whitney, a former
state orphanage at the corner of North Eagleville
Road and Route 195 which became the first academic
building of Storrs Agricultural School when it
opened in 1881. When a new administration and
academic building - known as Old Main - opened in
1890, the library collection was moved to new
quarters in that facility.
A new library was part of the Charles L. Beach
Building, when it opened in 1929 as a replacement
for Old Main. Then in 1939, after the former
agricultural college became the University of
Connecticut, the first library building opened. It
was named for Gov. Wilbur Cross in 1940.
The library's collections grew and programs evolved
over the nearly four decades that the Wilbur Cross
building was its home. An annex was built in 1964
to accommodate a burgeoning student body and the
University's growth as a public research
university. There were approximately 300,000
volumes in the collections when Homer Babbidge
became president in 1962. By 1970, the library
would mark the acquisition of its millionth volume.
Plans for a new library began in the late 1960s.
After the proposal had wended its way through the
political system and the General Assembly had
approved $19 million in bonding for construction of
the facility, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in
1975. The list of state dignitaries for the event
was headed by then-Gov. Ella T. Grasso.
Briefly in 1975 the yet-to-be built library was
named for Connecticut's Revolutionary War hero from
Coventry, Nathan Hale. But reaction was negative,
and the name was changed to the University Library.
That would allow for naming the building in memory
of UConn's eighth president - Homer D. Babbidge Jr.
- in 1985, the year after his death. Later that
year, the University was classified for the first
time as a Carnegie Research I University. |
The new library opened in 1978 with 396,000 square
feet of floor space, about four times the 95,000
square feet of floor space in the Wilbur Cross
Library. And the new facility could hold 3.5
million volumes, compared with 1.2 million in
Wilbur Cross. Seating for students and scholars
increased from 600 in the old library to 3,000 in
the new building.
In 1989, it was discovered that the Babbidge
Library had structural problems, including the
potential for its brick facade to fall away from
the structure. The building was wrapped in plastic
sheeting, and no bricks ever fell. Repair work was
delayed by problems with the initial contractors,
but by the fall of 1995, enough work had been
completed for the plastic sheeting to be removed in
time for the October 10 dedication of the adjoining
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, featuring President
Bill Clinton.
A gala re-dedication of the Babbidge Library was
held three years later, and with the changes to
Fairfield Way through the UConn 2000 project
enhancing its appearance, the library was
reaffirmed as the academic and physical center of
University life.
Mark J. Roy
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