For more than three decades, Wagner College students researched papers and studied for finals in a library shoehorned into the attic of the Admin Building, known today as Main Hall. The old library had just 40,000 books on its shelves and space for only 100 students. Plans in the mid-1950s for a new library were kicked up a notch when the Horrmann Foundation, a charity created by the local brewing family, contributed $100,000 to the project.
It was a great day in September 1961 when the Horrmann Library finally opened its doors — and its huge, open great room — to the students of Grymes Hill. The new building had space for 90,000 books on its shelves and seating for more than 400 students.
In commemorating the Horrmann Library’s 60th anniversary this fall, archivist Lisa Holland observed that “construction on both the Horrmann Library and the Berlin Wall was completed in 1961. While the Berlin Wall was demolished in 1989, the library still stands proudly on the Oval!”
