Opened in 1893, Redpath Hall was McGill University's first dedicated library building. It is situated at 3461, rue McTavish (3461,

McTavish Street McTavish Street (officially in french: Rue McTavish) is a street in the Golden Square Mile of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is named for Simon McTavish, whose estate once covered the land about it. The street runs up the slope of Mount Royal ...

). Through numerous renovations, the library was extended to the south with the addition of the Redpath Library Building and the adjacent McLennan Library, built in 1967-1969 .Today, the Redpath-McLennan complex houses th
Humanities and Social Sciences Library
the largest branch of the

McGill University Library McGill University Library is the library system of McGill University in Montréal, Québec, Canada. It comprises 13 branch libraries, located on the downtown Montreal and Macdonald campuses, holding over 11.78 million items. It is the fourth-lar ...

. Redpath Hall is today operated by the Schulich School of Music. The French Classical pipe organ was built by Hellmuth Wolff and donated in 1981. The Hall is also home to a large portion of the University's portrait collection, managed by th
McGill Visual Arts Collection.

History

Redpath Library under construction - 1892

The building was donated by Peter Redpath in 1893, who also founded the Redpath Museum at the University. The building was designed in the Romanesque style, by Sir Andrew Taylor from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The library incorporates much ornamentation. There are creatures and

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry wa ...

s in the roof, including two representing Redpath and Taylor. The library stacks were expanded in 1900–01 by Taylor, at the request of Redpath's wife,

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninc ...

. The library was expanded again in 1921, by Percy Erskine Nobbs and George Taylor Hyde in the original Taylor style. In 1952 the building was expanded to the south by the McDougall, Fleming and Smith architectural firm and new reading areas were added. With this expansion the east wall of the 1921 Nobbs building was enclosed and the use of the Redpath Hall as a part of the library came to an end. This expansion is now known at the Redpath Library Building and is a part of the

Humanities and Social Sciences Library Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the tim ...

. When the McLennan Library Building was built in 1969 it was connected to the Redpath Library Building via a walkway between the two buildings on the main floor. Redpath Hall is currently used as an auditorium and concert hall and has been under the management of the Schulich School of Music since June 1, 1986.

External links

Redpath Hall & Library

Humanities and Social Sciences Library

Redpath Hall duo
Urban life through Two Lenses exhibition, McCord Museum.
''Fontanus'' v.6. Redpath Special Issue
1993. McGill University Libraries

References

{{Authority control McGill University buildings Libraries in Montreal Libraries established in 1893 Redpath family Academic libraries in Canada Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Canada Romanesque Revival architecture in Canada Percy Erskine Nobbs buildings 1893 establishments in Quebec