Skip to main content

Completed Project

Invitation to celebrate the completion of the William Allan Neilson Library building program, October 1962.

 

The James Mandly Hills Wing and the new South Wing were opened in the fall of 1962. The completion of the building project was celebrated on October 19 with a ceremony in Wright Hall Auditorium, followed by a library “open house”.

 

In this photo, President Thomas C. Mendenhall is standing at the podium during the opening ceremony. Seated, left to right, are George Reaves of Turner Construction Company; Margaret Johnson, the College Librarian; Laura Hodgkinson, Chair of the Board of Trustees; Margaret Grierson, Executive Secretary of the Friends of the Library, College Archivist, and Head of the Sophia Smith Collection; and Walter H. Kilham, the architect from O’Connor & Kilham.

Typed copy of President Thomas C. Mendenhall's remarks at the dedication of the Neilson Library additions, 19 October 1962.

 

“First, ever since the first shelf of reference books materialized in College Hall, the Library has remained physically at the very center of the College – the traditional place for the heart of any living organism.”
~ Thomas C. Mendenhall, President of Smith College, 1959 to 1975

 

 

A few facts about William Allan Neilson Library and its recent building project, October 1962.

 

 

New staircase in Neilson Library, October 1962.

 

 

Rare Book Room, Smith College, 15 October 1962.

 

 

James Mandly Hills Wing of Neilson Library, 1976.

 

 

James Mandly Hills Wing of Neilson Library showing connector with Wright Hall, 1976.

 

 

 

 

 

Two New Wings, 1962
Completed Project