{"id":1939,"date":"2012-04-03T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T04:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archives.nd.edu\/about\/news\/?p=1939"},"modified":"2012-04-03T00:00:55","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T04:00:55","slug":"memorial-library-topping-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/memorial-library-topping-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Library Topping Out"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/a>
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On April 3, 1962, the last steel girder for the Memorial Library (now Hesburgh Library) was put into place.\u00a0 As part of the “topping out” ceremony, University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, inscribed the final beam, which was hoisted to the top with an American flag.<\/p>\n

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Memorial Library “Topping Out” Ceremony,\u00a01962\/0403. Rev. Theodore Hesburgh signing the final beam with the Latin phrase for “May the Blessed Mother bless us with her wonderful child.”\u00a0 At left is Pat Corrie, construction superintendent.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the 1950s, it was obvious that Notre Dame was outgrowing its library space in Lemonnier Library (now Bond Hall), which opened in 1917.\u00a0 The Administration contemplated several sites for a new library, including on Main Quad as a replacement of Main Building<\/a>.\u00a0 Fortunately, it was decided that the new library would occupy the quad north of Notre Dame Stadium.\u00a0 This required the removal of the Navy Drill Hall and the Vetville buildings<\/a>, which began in the summer of 1961.<\/p>\n

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Memorial Library “Topping Out” Ceremony, 1962\/0403 An American flag waves at the top of the steel frame of the building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Memorial Library, renamed Hesburgh Library in 1987, was open for use in the fall of 1963, although the installation of the “Word of Life” mural was not yet complete.\u00a0 The library was officially dedicated in May 1964.<\/p>\n

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Sources:
\n<\/em>Scholastic<\/em>
\nGPHR 45\/4464<\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>

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On April 3, 1962, the last steel girder for the Memorial Library (now Hesburgh Library) was put into place.\u00a0 As part of the “topping out” ceremony, University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, inscribed the final beam, which was hoisted to the top with an American flag. By the 1950s, it was obvious that Notre … Continue reading “Memorial Library Topping Out”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-1939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nd-history","tag-buildings-and-grounds"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 10:15:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}