Mary Reed Hall is located on the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

campus in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

southwest of University Hall. It was built in 1932 as a new library to replace the Andrew S. Carnegie

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

. The

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fu ...

, named after Mary D. Reed, was first used in January 1933. When Penrose Library (which is now Anderson Academic Commons) was built in 1972, the building was decommissioned. The Mary Reed Building now houses administrative offices, including those of the chancellor and provost. The hall's main architectural feature of its central tower has become an iconic image for the university, its likeness appearing on stationery, graduation announcements, class rings, and other memorabilia.

Mary and Verner Reed

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

natives, Mary Reed and her husband Verner Reed moved to Colorado in 1893. Verner Reed was very prosperous from

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

, ranching,

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becau ...

and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

in Colorado. When he died in April 1919, he left his wife Mary with an estate worth $20 million, equal to nearly $400 million today. Mary Reed used the money acquired from the estate and donated nearly $500,000 to the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

to fund and construct a new library. Over the years, Reed added more than $200,000 to her previous contributions, served on the board of trustees and received an honorary degree in 1939. Mary Reed died in April 1945.

Planning

Planning for the library began in 1931 after Mary Reed made her donation to the university. The University of Denver chose a site that was centrally located on campus and that had a view of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

. Denver local, Harry J. Manning was selected by Reed to be the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

for the building.

Construction

The building was funded by $500,000 donated by Mary Reed. The

donation A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as ...

of the money was dedicated in a three-day celebration in October 1932. A. Danielson & Son were selected to construct the building and the process began on September 5, 1931. The red bricks used on the Mary Reed Building were specially made by Denver Sewer Pipe and Clay Company and Indiana limestone. With a central tower, the building was supposed to reflect a modified collegiate

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style structure. On February 12, 1932, the Mary Reed Building's

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

was laid. In the summer of 2008,

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...

workers spent time tuck-pointing the building. This process involves replacing old mortar in order to better bind the bricks together. The hope is that this process will allow the Mary Reed Building to stand strong for the next 100 years.

Features

The Mary Reed Building is and has four stories. The facility boasts gothic arches and windows,

wrought-iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...

railings with

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

caps, exhibit cases,

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

lights specially designed with bronze and iron, and terrazzo stairways and corner halls.
/ref> The building holds a number of seminar and conference rooms, along with administrative offices. A Renaissance Room was opened for students to read and browse books. Furthermore, there was a treasure room mainly for rare books and manuscripts and exhibit rooms for archaeology and art displays. Mary Reed's

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

hangs in the Renaissance Room in honor of a request she made before her death and to remind the public of her generosity to the University of Denver. The back of the building is home to the Harper Humanities Garden, which features a number of

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were ori ...

s, which connect the Mary Reed Building to the Evans Chapel.

Ghosts

The Mary Reed Building has been said to be haunted for many years. The custodial staff often reports strange happenings within the historic building. Examples include books being strewn around locked rooms, sightings of a ghostly woman, and alarms going off when the building is deserted. There are even reports that a chair in the old library often feels warm as though someone just sat in it when, in fact, it had been empty for hours. Because of these spooky experiences, it is common for staff to refuse to enter the building late at night. Some believe that the spirit is Mary Reed herself haunting the building. Others think that it is University of Denver

alumna Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

Margery Reed, who died in 1925. The DuPont room, in which a ghost has been reported, is said to be haunted by Marcella Miller DuPont, who made a donation for a study room in the Mary Reed Building.

References