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Davidson College has a long history of book collecting, but the Little Library is a relatively new addition to the campus landscape. Over the years, college libraries have been housed in the Old Chambers building, Phi and Eu halls, in the Carnegie guest house (which was once a Carnegie library) and in Sloan. The Little Library of today was built in 1974, but not before considerable debate over where it should be located.
One of the artifacts of this debate is this map of possible library sites. Each was accompanied by a list of pros and cons. Location one – south of the President’s house and the guest house, was “near dorms and classrooms” but might “necessitate the removal [of] good trees.” Location two – just north of the current location – would “crowd Duke & East dorms.” Location three, despite “good access from [the] road” was both “too far from dorms and classrooms” and “would cause removal of Jackson Court.” Other locations were too far from classrooms, and one – directly across Concord road from campus “present[ed] road crossing problem for students.” The committee went on to note that “solution of tunnel or bridge could be expensive.”
Given how much the campus has expanded since then, the thought of a bridge over or tunnel under Concord is a bit laughable, but it’s interesting to imagine what life on campus might have been like – and how we might have used space differently – had the library been placed somewhere else.