Opened in 1893, Redpath Hall was McGill University's first dedicated library building. It is situated at 3461, rue McTavish (3461, McTavish Street). Through numerous renovations, the library was extended to the south with the addition of the Redpath Library Building and the adjacent

McLennan Library The McLennan Library Building of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is situated at 3459, rue McTavish (3459, McTavish Street) on the northeast corner of rue Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke Street) and rue McTavish (McTavish Street). The building ...

, 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-la ...

. Redpath Hall is today operated by the

Schulich School of Music The Schulich School of Music (also known as Schulich) is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest (555, Sherbrooke Street West). The faculty was named after benef ...

. 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 Peter Redpath (August 1, 1821 – February 1, 1894) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist, closely associated with Redpath Sugar. Biography Redpath was born in Montreal, Lower Canada, the son of a Scottish immigrant, John Redpath, a ...

in 1893, who also founded the

Redpath Museum The Redpath Museum (french: Musée Redpath) is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University and located on the university's campus at 859, rue Sherbrooke Ouest (859 Sherbrooke Street West) in Montreal, Quebec. It was built in 1882 ...

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. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. 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 walls ...

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 uninco ...

. The library was expanded again in 1921, by

Percy Erskine Nobbs Percy Erskine Nobbs (August 11, 1875 – November 5, 1964) was a Canadian architect who was born in Haddington, East Lothian, and trained in the United Kingdom. Educated at the Edinburgh Collegiate School and Edinburgh University, he spent ...

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

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