Spooner Hall

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Spooner Hall, University of Kansas | nrhp_type = | image = Spooner Hall.JPG | caption = | location = 14th St. and Oread Ave. on the University of Kansas campus, Lawrence, Kansas | coordinates = {{coord|38|57|30|N|95|14|48|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Kansas#USA | built = {{Start date|1894}} | architect = Henry Van Brunt; John Cox | architecture = Southern Romanesque Revival | added = July 15, 1974 | area = {{convert|1|acre}} | refnum = 74000832<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref> }} '''Spooner Hall''' was built in 1893–94 as the University of Kansas' first library building. The Richardsonian Romanesque structure was designed by architect Henry Van Brunt and built with funds bequeathed by William B. Spooner, a Massachusetts leather merchant who had a family connection to the university. As originally built, the building housed a reading room on the ground floor and meeting space on the upper level, with book stacks in a five-story section.<ref name=nrhpinv1>{{cite web|last=Hall|first=Charles|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Spooner Hall|url={{NRHP url|id=74000832}}|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=29 January 2014|date=October 30, 1973}}</ref>

Spooner Hall is constructed of rough-faced gray Oread Limestone blocks quarried in the immediate vicinity of Mount Oread.<ref>{{citation |title= National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: University of Kansas Historic District |publisher= National Park Service |url= https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/13000167.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170116185754/https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/13000167.pdf |url-status= dead |archive-date= January 16, 2017 |quote = Local craftsmen quarried Oread limestone from the north slope of the ridge for the first generation of buildings. }}</ref> Red Dakota sandstone accents the quoins, columns, beltlines and sills. The roof is a steeply pitched gable with a clay tile roof covering, accented by a sculpted owl on the peak of the western gable. The original interior was completely modified for use as an art gallery.<ref name=nrhpinv1/>

In 1924, Spooner Hall was superseded by a new library. In 1926, the building became the Spooner-Thayer Museum of Art. Later renamed the University of Kansas Museum of Art, the collection moved into the Spencer Museum of Art in 1978.<ref name=hmof1>{{cite web|title=Spooner Hall|url=http://www2.ku.edu/~union/hmof/landmarks/spooner.shtml|work=Historic Mount Oread Fund|publisher=University of Kansas|accessdate=29 January 2014}}</ref> It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 15, 1974.<ref name="nris"/> The building presently houses anthropology collections and acts as a conference center.<ref name=mccool1>{{cite web|last=McCool|first=John H.|title=Spooner or Later|url=http://kuhistory.com/articles/spooner-or-later/|publisher=KU Memorial Unions|accessdate=29 January 2014}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category-inline|Spooner Hall, University of Kansas}} *[http://www2.ku.edu/~union/hmof/landmarks/spooner.shtml Spooner Hall] at the Historic Mount Oread Fund *[http://kuhistory.com/articles/spooner-or-later/ "Spooner or Later"] at KU History * {{HABS | survey = KS-65-A | id = ks0152 | title = Spooner Hall, Fourteenth Street & Jayhawk Road, Lawrence, Douglas County, KS | photos = 10 | color = | dwgs = 14 | data = | cap = 1}}

Category:University and college buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas Category:School buildings completed in 1894 Category:University of Kansas buildings and structures Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Kansas Category:Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Kansas Category:Library buildings completed in 1894 Category:National Register of Historic Places in Douglas County, Kansas Category:Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas Category:University and college academic libraries in the United States