Rhodes College has had a long and storied history since its founding more than 175 years ago. Twenty years ago, the college started an exciting new chapter with the grand opening of the Paul Barret, Jr. Library on Aug. 23, 2005. At a cost of $42 million, the library remains the largest construction project in the college’s history. Its award-winning design is a phenomenal expression of the campus’ signature Collegiate Gothic style, filled with functional and inspiring spaces connecting academic and student life.
In 2001, then Rhodes President William E. Troutt announced a $35 million gift from the Paul Barret Jr. Trust, which was established after the 1999 death of Rhodes alumnus Paul Barret, Jr. ’46. “This is a magnificent gift,” said Troutt. “The Paul Barret, Jr. Library will reshape our campus. It is a major step forward in making Rhodes even stronger.”
Virginia-based Hanbury and Boston-based Shepley Bullfinch were the collaborating architectural firms on the project. Memphis-based Grinder, Taber, & Grinder was selected as the general contractor.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in December 2002, with Rhodes alumnus Lewis Donelson ’38, who served as attorney to the Paul Barret, Jr. Trust, and Barret Trustees John Douglas ’48 and Graves Leggett in attendance. Construction began March 2003.
The new library replaced the historic Burrow Library, which was adapted into spaces for admissions, financial aid, and student services. In 2005, as construction was nearing completion, members of the Rhodes Class of 2005 formed a book brigade to physically pass books from the old library to the new library. Members of the class also served as judges for a contest—open to the entire student body—to name the coffee café that would be located in the new library. Rachel Waterfill ’04 took first prize for her entry, “The Middle Ground,” and the café has become a popular gathering place in the middle of campus for the Rhodes community to have conversations, share stories, and try out new ideas while enjoying coffee and a snack.
From collaborative study spaces to meeting and learning rooms to a flexible floor plan and mobile shelving units, the entire Paul Barret, Jr. Library was designed for students to connect with one another, faculty, Memphis, and the world. Rhodes students fan out across the city doing internships, research, and community service as part of the Rhodes Vision, and the library became a place to bring those experiences back to campus for processing, reflection, and synthesized learning.
When the Barret Library officially opened to the campus in 2005, attendees were wowed. Its exterior architectural details included Gothic limestone arches, a cloister, two towers (one at 120 feet, the other 65 feet), roofing made out of 375 tons of slate, stoned carvings of symbols distinctive to Rhodes, a literary garden, an apse with a copper dome, and stained glass windows, including one of the Rhodes College seal.
The interior included elaborate chandeliers, sconces, columns, railings, and moldings; a grand staircase and custom designed carpeting with a Rhodes Seal pattern; archives of rare books; reading tables wired for laptops and computer labs; media rooms, group study rooms, and an academic computer and learning center; faculty carrels and administrative offices; library stacks; classrooms and conference rooms; and a 32-seat viewing theater.
The library’s apse certainly presented high drama, with an interior balcony and a ceiling painted to represent the arrangement of stars on the first day of Rhodes' first year as a college, January 1849, when the Lynx constellation ruled the sky. Coincidentally, the lynx is the Rhodes mascot adopted in 1924.
The college went on to add services and spaces to the library to further accommodate student needs, and Darlene Brooks, director of the Barret Library, said, “Now we have a state-of-the-art Podcast studio, a flexible space for teaching and learning, a space for students to pray/meditate, and partnering with Student Disabilities Services in Student Life, we have the Distraction Reduced Testing Room for students. The Writing Center is located on the main floor, and a Peer Coaching room is located on the second floor along with an Entrepreneurial Hub.”
Barret Library has garnered multiple awards for its design and graced the covers of several publications, including The Princeton Review’s Complete Book of Colleges and Traditional Building Magazine. It also has been featured among the “World’s 50 Most Amazing University Libraries” and in an issue of University Business on how colleges and universities are successfully creating and communicating their brands.
Over the past 20 years, the Paul Barret, Jr. Library has re-centered the campus both physically and symbolically. As the college turns the page to a new semester, it will celebrate the library’s 20th anniversary with an event on Friday, Aug. 22, at 10 a.m. The Rhodes community is invited.