College Hall

After "the finest site in all Beirut if not in all Syria" was found to build a campus for the Syrian Protestant College, it was "recommended by the Trustees that I spend the summer in Constantinople," wrote Dr. Bliss in his Reminiscences, "and consult President Hamlin of Robert College and Dr. Isaac Bliss of the Bible House about building. I obtained some valuable information about how to build and how not to build."

The cornerstone of the Main Building, later to be named College Hall, was laid by the Honourable William Earl Dodge Sr. on December 7, 1871.

The buildings - College Hall, the Medical Building, and the Ada Dodge Hall started in 1872 - "were erected of the best kind of sandstone... The plans, made in New York, were complete in details, so that we, though unacquainted with building were able to follow them. Commencing with the simple ground plan we learned to work out the more intricate parts. Years after, an English architect, on seeing the structures, asked the name of the architect. I mentioned the name of the one who drew the plans. But, he said, "who worked out the plans?". On my telling him that we did, and that we had made many mistakes but had managed to cover them up, he replied: " 'That is perfection in art.' "

The Faculty and student body moved into the Main Building at the beginning of the 1873-74 academic year, and, "one night in December when the moon was shining on the glassy sea below us... Tutor Ibrahim shouldered the shovel and the hoe and led off forty or fifty fellows after supper to dig holes for planting the trees". On 13 March, 1874, the risky task of hoisting the bell, brought from Troy, NY, to the College tower was accomplished. "The students pulled well at the rope and the Faculty were summoned to join them to hear the bell rung for the first time at five p.m." It weighed 800 pounds and "the risk was not small", wrote Dr. Bliss to Mrs. Bliss who was then in the United States, "for had it fallen it could have been broken... At 5:00 p.m. it gave its first sound. It's a nice one". Strangely enough Dr. Bliss makes no mention of the clock nor do the Annual Reports of the Board of Managers. After a lot of searching the Physical Plant provided us with information from the AUB Bulletin, April 9, 1969, to the effect that very little is known about the clock but that it was, along with the bell, a gift from Trustee William E. Dodge Sr., father of Trustee D. Stuart Dodge. It is, therefore, believed that it was put up in the tower at the same time as the bell but its place was below the arcades of the tower. It was made by the Seth Thomas Clock Co. of Connecticut. The people of Beirut came to depend on the clock and bell and when the clock needed repairs, the University had to raise a huge black ball to the tower at 12 o'clock every noon according to the time set by its observatory, so that people could adjust their watches. Emeritus Prof. Mansur Jurdak (see al-Kulliyah, Autumn/Winter Issue, 1988 pp. 8-13) is quoted as relating that the people of Brummana bought a small telescope to be able to watch the time-ball.

In 1930 the tower was split and needed repairing and, since several buildings had been erected around the University blocking the clock, it was raised to its present position above the arcades. According to Mr. Abdul Rahman Barbir, formerly director of housing, Sheikh Mohammad Barbir, then the Timekeeper of Beirut and the Imam of the Umari Mosque, suggested that the University build an extension on top of the tower and raise the clock since he depended on it for the call to prayer. In 1955 the bell cracked and was recast at Beit Shebab, Lebanon, by Yusif and Shebli Naffa', and in December, 1962, the old clock was replaced by a new one designed and constructed on campus under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Bridgewood of the Engineering School.

College Hall started out by housing classrooms, Chapel, Faculty Lounge, Library, Herbarium and, until 1882, the Preparatory Department.

The Library occupied the large room in the northeast corner of the Ground Floor. In 1891 when the Chapel was built, the Library was moved to more spacious quarters in the former assembly hall on the second floor at the east end of the building, and the premises were divided into thirds. The north third was stack space for books, the center third was the reading room and the south third the University Herbarium which was moved to Post Hall when that building was completed in 1902.

The Faculty Room was moved to the Ada Dodge Memorial Building completed in 1885, which added another room to the Library, the first step in its physical expansion.

In 1904, the SPC alumni in Egypt and the Sudan presented the College with a life-size marble statue of President Bliss, carved in Italy, which was placed in the Library Reading Room.

Every two or three years after that, another room was added until, by 1926, there was no remaining space on that floor for student dormitories. The Library stacks were removed from the north end of the original room to the corridor, making the entire large room available as a reading room. At that time the statue of Daniel Bliss, stood at the south end of the reading room.

During the Second World War, the continued growth of the Library made it necessary once again to take back a part of the reading room as space, and the Bliss statue was moved to the north end of the room and the stacks were placed along the south.

Nami Jafet Memorial Library

By the end of the War the pressing need for expansion was answered in the form of a grant donated by the widow and children of Nami Jafet, BA 1888, for a memorial library with a book capacity of 200,000 volumes and a seating capacity in excess of immediate needs. The building was designed by the wellknown New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, and has a facade of hand-hewn Shimlan limestone. Prof. Khosrof K. Yeramian of the University's School of Engineering was the general contractor for the construction which was supervised by the Department of Building and Grounds.

Completed in 1951, it consists of three floors, the main floor contains the card catalogue and circulation desk which is provided with a book lift connecting all floors of the stack area, and the reference room, the reading room and a balcony that overlooks the main reading room, the offices of the Librarian and staff, the work rooms for processing of books together with smaller rooms for the storage and reading of microfilm and other technical processes.

The ground floor, below the main floor contains a large exhibition hall with men's and women's rest rooms. Opposite the west end of the exhibition hall is the serials reading room and back of that in the northwest corner is the receiving room where crates of books are received and unpacked which has access to the freight elevator which serves the work rooms above.

The third floor contains a library staff room, a large terrace which provides a scenic view of Beirut and the sea and mountains.

The central core of the building on each floor is the stack area where the main body of the books is kept. Located on that floor are 72 carrels and 22 desks in the Carrels reading room. There is also a room with facilities for the visually handicapped.

In the main reading room stands the marble statue of the selfless man who started it all. Daniel Bliss still watches over all the generations that have come to AUB to become better men.