Battle Hall, also known as the "Cass Gilbert Building" and "The Old Library," is a historic library on the campus of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. It is one of four buildings on campus that have been added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The others are the Littlefield House, University Junior High School (now the School of Social Work Building) and Little Campus (now called Arno Nowotny Building and John W. Hargis Hall). The building was designed by New York architect

Cass Gilbert Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and ...

in 1911, using a Spanish-Mediterranean Revival style. It served as the main library until the new main building was completed in 1937. It now houses the Architecture and Planning Library, the Alexander Architectural Archives and the Center for American Architecture. The building's design, particularly its Spanish red tile roof, overhanging eaves and limestone walls, heavily influenced the 1933 master plan developed by

Paul Cret Paul Philippe Cret (October 23, 1876 – September 8, 1945) was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylv ...

, which in turn is a design requirement for new buildings on campus to this day. By the 1940s, the university's archival collections had outgrown their facilities. The Board of Regents voted to use the Cass Gilbert Building as a library once again, and after 1950, the expanding collections were rededicated as the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center and moved into the "Old Library."

References

External links

Battle Hall historyThe University of Texas at Austin School of ArchitectureArchitecture and Planning LibraryAlexander Architectural Archives
1911 establishments in Texas Cass Gilbert buildings Library buildings completed in 1911 National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas University and college academic libraries in the United States University of Texas at Austin campus Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Libraries in Austin, Texas University and college buildings completed in 1911 {{Texas-NRHP-stub