Redpath Hall is a historic building at 3461 McTavish Street in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada, on the main campus of

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

. It was originally the reading room of the Redpath Library, which opened in 1893 as McGill's first dedicated

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

building. During the first half of the 20th century, the library was extended several times to the south, and the expanded building became known as the Redpath Library Building. Subsequently, the adjacent McLennan Library Building was built between 1967 and 1969. Today, the Redpath-McLennan library complex houses th
Humanities and Social Sciences Library
the largest branch of the McGill University Library. Redpath Hall is now used as a venue for concerts and other events, and it is operated by the Schulich School of Music. The French Classical pipe organ was built by Hellmuth Wolff and donated in 1981. Redpath Hall is also home to a large portion of the university's portrait collection, which is managed by th
McGill Visual Arts Collection

History

The original library building was completed in 1893 and donated by Peter Redpath, who also founded the Redpath Museum at the university. It was designed in the Romanesque style by Andrew Taylor of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. The building incorporates much ornamentation. There are

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed Grotesque (architecture), grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from ...

s and other figures on 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. The library was expanded again in 1921, by Percy Erskine Nobbs and George Taylor Hyde, in the original Taylor style. In 1952, the building was extended to the south by the architectural firm of McDougall, Fleming and Smith, and new reading areas were added. With this expansion, the east wall of the 1921 Nobbs building was enclosed, and the use of Redpath Hall as the reading room of the library came to an end. This expansion is now known as the Redpath Library Building, and it is part of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. When the McLennan Library Building was completed in 1969, it was connected to the Redpath Library Building by a walkway between the two buildings on the main floor. Redpath Hall is currently used as a concert hall and for special events. It has been under the management of McGill's Faculty of Music since June 1, 1986.

History

References

External links