Boyd Lee Spahr Library (1967-1998)

The longtime interest of Board of Trustees president Boyd Lee Spahr in advancing the collections and services of the Dickinson College Library in Carlisle, Pennsylvania reached its peak on November 4, 1967, when Dickinson College’s Boyd Lee Spahr Library was dedicated. It had been designed by Howell Lewis Shay and Associates, and constructed at a cost of $2,250,000.

The new library consisted 62,000 square feet of space on three levels: the main floor was used for reference and operations, while the upper and lower levels contained the stacks of books. On October 12, 1967, members of the Dickinson community participated in a book walk, which moved the entire library collection from Bosler Hall into the new Spahr Library. Two memorials were also established in the building. The Alexander A. Sharp Room for recreational reading continued first Dickinson female trustee Mary Sharp Foucht’s memorial to her father, which had been first established in the library in Bosler. The May Morris Room provided a home for the Dickinsoniana Collection, rare books, and manuscripts. May Morris, a member of the class of 1909, was the College’s longtime librarian and the second female full professor in Dickinson history.

In 1997, renovations to the Spahr Library began in conjunction with the building of a new addition, made possible by a donation from Robert A. Waidner, class of 1932 and member of the Board of Trustees. These were completed in 1998 and the complex was rededicated as the Waidner-Spahr Library on October 23rd of that year.