VMC's libraries

I arrived at VMC in September 1959. The library was the fourth floor of the old Benedictine convent on 12th St east of Scott, between the old St Joseph's elementary school at 12th & Scott and the old St Joseph's Church on the next corner.

The old convent, which contained administration offices on lower floors, was very old. It was slowly collapsing. The stairs were in the center of the floor. A marble dropped near the outer wall in the library on the fourth floor would roll to the center of the building, before rolling down the stairs.

In the early 1960s, the college took over an old Knights of Columbus Hall on the east side of Madison between 10th and 11th. Next to it on the north was a parking lot for the A&P grocery store on the corner of 10th and Madison.

One of the floors (the top?) was destined to be the new library. I remember the books were packed loosely in open-topped beer cartons (the old 24 long-neck bottle types) and brought the the A&P parking lot. An open construction elevator brought the boxes up to a window of the library. Students on the elevator handed them through the window to students inside. This was possibly the work of the Sigma Alpha Lambda fraternity.

I seem to remember there was a cafeteria on the next lower floor.

See: Alumni's Favorite Places on Campus