Year Built: 1948

Purpose: Collection of Books, Periodicals and More, Place of Research

 

The library has been an ever changing entity on campus at Gustavus Adolphus College. Originating on the first floor of Old Main, the library has existed in such places as Uhler Hall’s basement, the President’s Home, the current Social Science Center, and the Folke Bernadotte Memorial library building we know today. Many proposed plans for the library existed but were constantly renounced due to World War II. Although housed in several multi-use structures, the library received it’s very own building for the first time in September 1948 (After World War II) when the new $17,000 Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library opened its doors. The library was dedicated in memory of Count Folke Bernadotte, the U.N. mediator to Palestine who had been assassinated in September 1948. It was constructed south of then-Johnson Hall and right behind the heating plant, and made predominately of the Kasota stone that is so prevalent around the Saint Peter area. With a three story structure that included books, publications, a museum, archives, map room, radio record room, and microphone room, the finished building exceeded it’s original goal to provide space that functions both for the requirements of a library and for present and future campus planning (with appropriate character to establish its importance as the academic center of campus). After 20 years serving as the primary library at Gustavus, however, space was getting scarce and a change was needed. Therefore, plans for a new, state of the art library were announced in January of 1968 courtesy of Setter, Leach, and Lindstrom, Inc. of Minneapolis. Original plans for the new facility called for three stories and 77,000 square feet of space to accommodate 2,500 students; a job that would cost the college an estimated 2.5 million dollars. When it was all said and done in the fall of 1972, however, the final product had evolved into a 2.8 million dollar investment. Upon its completion, the original library building was

remodeled to be the A.H. Anderson Social Science Center. Still three levels, the new and improved Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library was everything and more than its predecessor, including the ability to house 200,000 more books, thanks in large part to the 90,000 square feet it now encompassed. Stressing the importance of individual study with hundreds of private “study stations” and 15 plus study rooms, the new building also boasted smoking lounges on all three levels and additional space to more suitably continue the archive. The architects used a red/brown brick exterior to maintain cohesion with other buildings on campus.