Duane Library is a former library located at

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

's Rose Hill campus, originally constructed in 1926. After the construction of the

William D. Walsh Family Library The William D. Walsh Family Library is a library located at Fordham University's Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx, New York City. In its 2004 edition of ''The Best 351 Colleges'', the Princeton Review ranked Fordham's William D. Walsh Family Library ...

in 1997, Duane Library officially closed. Renovated in 2004, it now houses the university's admissions office and theology department.

History

Construction

Excavation for Duane Library began shortly after the university's completion of the

Rose Hill Gymnasium Rose Hill Gymnasium is a 3,200-seat multi-purpose arena on the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University in The Bronx, New York City, New York (state), New York. The arena, which opened in 1925, is the oldest on-campus venue currently used primarily ...

in January 1925, and construction formally began in 1926. The library was completed in 1928. It was named after Father William J. Duane, S.J. the university's president from 1924 to 1930. Its interior features a

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

and oak paneling, and capacity to store 150,000 volumes.

Renovation and repurposing

In the 1990s during the construction of the

, the basement space of Keating Hall was used to store 300,000 books that had been held in the Duane Library collection. After the completion of the Walsh Family Library, the Duane Library was officially closed to students and faculty and sat empty. In 2004, a $12 million restoration project of the library was undertaken. A new staircase was added to the building, which used

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

slabs from the library's original stacks. Additionally, the original granite porch of the library's second-floor entrance was removed, relocating the main entrance to grade. The interior restoration required the creation of corridors in order to make the building multi-use, as the original interior had been a single open space. After the completion of the restoration, Duane Library became the official home of the university's admissions and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

department, as well as providing lecture and study spaces.

Recent History

In 2018, the university was gifted a quarter-scale reproduction of Michelangelo's

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...

ceiling fresco by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. The digital reproduction was made for the Met's exhibit, ''Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer'', which ran from November 2017 to February 2018. It is on display in Duane Library's Butler Commons.

Gallery

Image:Fordham University Campus fall 2010 (2).jpg, Duane Library, viewed from the south Image:Fordham Manor, Bronx, NY, USA - panoramio (9).jpg, Entrance to Duane Library Image:Duane Library interior.jpg, Interior of Duane Library

Notes and references

Notes

References

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External links

Duane Library event archives
{{Fordham University 1926 establishments in New York City Buildings at Fordham University Collegiate Gothic architecture in New York (state) Libraries in the Bronx