Misc Virginia PWA Projects - Photo #1

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uvaaldermanlibrary
Alderman Library at the University of Virginia, built by the University and funded with loans and grants from the Public Works Administration; construction started in November 1936 and was completed in June 1938.[1,2]  UVA was founded (and designed) by Thomas Jefferson (who lived just up the hill from it) in 1819. By the 1930s, the University's original library in the Rotunda was no longer adequate, so this new one was added in a style harmonious with Jefferson's original design[4]. Today Alderman library “holds the most extensive Tibetan collection in the world, and holds ten floors of book ‘stacks’ of varying ages and historical value. The renowned Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library features one of the premier collections of American Literature in the country as well as two copies of the original printing of the Declaration of Independence.“[2] (The building has more floors than the front view would suggest.)
References
  1. Short, C.W., and R. Stanley Brown, Public Buildings, A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration, United States Government Printing Office, Washington (1939), page 123.
  2. University of Virginia, Wikipedia, accessed 9 June 2017.
  3. Public Works Administration Dockets for Virginia 1934-1939, 3 January 1940: Docket Number W1075.
  4. Personal knowledge; I attended UVA in the early 1960s.
Photos from C.W. Short, U.S. Federal Works Agency Public Buildings (1939).