My William and Mary Campus Tour: Stop 5 – Tucker Hall
Funded by Andrew Carnegie and built in 1908-9, Tucker Hall was William & Mary’s first dedicated library building. (I don’t think it was called “Tucker” yet. I think it was called “the library”). It served in this capacity until the current library, Earl Gregg Swem, was opened on the “New Campus” in 1966.
This building was still serving as the college library during my first semester there in the fall of 1965. It was not convenient to use; it operated on a “closed stacks” system, which meant that if you wanted to use a book on the shelves, you had to fill out a slip of paper, submit it to one of the library’s staff, and wait until they delivered the book for you. Tim and I studied in the library a few times – but I have to admit, my primary memory of this space is the drifty feeling I had as I was coming down with mononucleosis during my freshman year. I remember looking at my hand and wondering why the room was rotating around it. Tim took me to the college infirmary, where I slept for a few days.
For the next couple of decades after the library moved to its new location, this building housed the college’s law school and was renamed Marshall-Wythe Hall, after two distinguished alumni of the college, John Marshall and George Wythe. I didn’t have much to do with this building during these years.
In 1980, the law school moved to its new building (on South Henry Street, a few blocks from the campus) and the English department moved into the building. It was at this point that the building was renamed in honor of former law professor and Revolutionary War veteran St. George Tucker, whose house is near the Governor’s Palace in Colonial Williamsburg.
I have a few memories of this building in recent years. One of my former English professors, Bob Maccubbin (I wrote about him on March 1), had an office here before he retired, and Tim and I came by to see him a couple of times when we were visiting the campus on homecoming weekends before we moved to Williamsburg. I think I went to a couple of lectures in the lecture hall at the back of the building, although I don’t remember much about them.
A statue of James Monroe stands in front of Tucker Hall. It was dedicated on April 23, 2015, and was a gift from some William & Mary alumni. Monroe was a student at the college from 1774-1776. I have walked past this statue a lot but I’ve never looked at it very closely.