Name(s) of Buildings: Paul Meek Library

Construction Dates: 1966-1968; 1993-1995

Cost: $1,259,190; $9,850,000

Brief History:

The campus library, located in the ABL Building, had outgrown its designated area by the early 1960's. Construction on a new building to house the library were begun in spring of 1966 and completed by the spring of 1968. Its 60,000 square feet was designed to house 200,000 books, plus library-related media materials. The building was named in honor of Dr. Paul Meek, the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Martin and its predecessors from 1934 to 1967.

By the 1990s the original structure was filled to capacity and in a state of environmental disrepair that could not be resolved. The legislature would not approve a new structure but would fund a "retrofit." In the summer of 1993 the building was emptied, the collections and offices housed temporarily in Clement Hall, and the structure reduced to a concrete pad and columns. The rebuilding project was finished by the summer of 1995. The renovated library's size was doubled to over 120,000 square feet and included all the modern amenities needed for a university research center, including a new Special Collections department.