The University Library's special collections library is a victim of its own success.
Over the past decades it has accumulated a collection of rare documents and books that few American libraries can match. The University possesses over 12 million rare documents and books, including such items as the plates used to illustrate Dickens' novels and a page from a Gutenberg Bible. The collection grows larger every year.
Unfortunately, it was apparent years ago to many in special collections that their facilities were stretched to the breaking point.
"The University's special collections are the largest in the country without their own building," Director of Library Development Jeanne Hammer said. And in the current situation they cannot be stored, exhibited, and studied effectively, Hammer added.
The new Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library promises to solve these problems in the foreseeable future. According to library officials, it will eliminate current limits on storage space, utilize the latest in information technology. It also will provide space for research, teaching and first-rate exhibits.
And - always important to the University - it is designed to merge smoothly into its Jeffersonian surroundings.
To make way for the new library, Miller Hall, former home of the Office of Admissions, must be demolished. In less than two months, it will be.
The decision to tear down Miller Hall was not taken lightly. The issue was tackled by architectural advisors, the library development staff and finally by the Board of Visitors. According to University Librarian Karin Wittenborg, the building's complex and somewhat checkered past was the major stumbling block.
"We wrestled extensively with Miller's history in deciding to remove it," Wittenborg said.
In the end, officials decided the historic value of Miller Hall did not outweigh the needs of the University.
Less than two months from today the wrecking ball will swing.
But before that happens Miller Hall deserves to be remembered for its 130-plus years of existence. Any building that old deserves as much, especially one born of the North-South rivalry. And certainly one that was burned to the ground by a fraternity boy looking to make off with a few thousand dollars of platinum.
In the years following the Civil War, many worried about the University's weakness in the scientific and technical fields compared to established Northeastern schools. According to historian Philip A. Bruce, the faculty argued that without strengthening Virginia's credentials in these areas "the Northern seats of learning would draw away to themselves the young men of the South."
To avert this potential disaster, the University began an expansion program. The initial phase of the program included the construction of a Chemical Laboratory - which would later become known as Miller Hall - in 1868-69, the first post-Civil War building on Grounds.
The Chemical Laboratory served its intended purpose for nearly fifty years. As the original home of the chemistry department, it provided excellent facilities for its time for lectures and experiment.
All that came to an abrupt end Jan. 26, 1917 when the laboratory burned to the ground. Its destruction was nearly total. The campus newspaper, College Topics, mentioned with a hint of Southern pride that much of the damage could be attributed to the quality of Southern manufacture; a collection of half-century-old Confederate explosives and artillery shells within the laboratory had exploded as intended. In fact, things could have been worse. The efforts of students and faculty saved an attached shed filled with dynamite and cordite from the blaze.
Given the laboratory's contents, officials initially deemed the fire to be accidental. But when recovery efforts failed to locate $2,500 - almost $35,000 today - worth of platinum, state officials realized that a thief (a not-so-bright thief, at that; platinum does not burn) had set fire to the building in an effort to cover his tracks.
The prime suspects were members of the chemistry department, as only they knew both the locations of the precious metal and the keys required to get to it. A brief investigation turned up some of the missing platinum in the room of Spotswood Dabney Crenshaw IV, a laboratory assistant. Apparently he had made an ill-advised pledge to build his fraternity house, Delta Tau Delta, a new porch; when he came up short of funds he decided to cover robbery with arson. As a result of this incident, Crenshaw left the University to spend some time at another institution - Virginia's State Mental Hospital.
The burned-out hulk lie dormant until 1920, when it was appointed the new home of the biology department and rebuilt with a second story. It is this reconstruction that exists today, and the difference between the two levels still can be seen. Biology remained in the building until the completion of Gilmer Hall in 1963.
After yet another renovation, Miller began a short stint as the Peabody Annex, an overflow valve of sorts for the expanding Curry School of Education, then quartered in Peabody Hall. Just as the chemistry and biology departments already had, the school soon outgrew the outdated structure.
Its last incarnation was - finally - as Miller Hall, home of the Office of Admissions. It fulfilled this role until just months ago when admissions moved to Peabody Hall and Miller was vacated for the last time.
Less than two years from now, the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library will stand where Miller Hall does today. It promises to have a less-turbulent University career than Miller.
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