One of the greatest aspects of USF is its beauty. Set on a hill in San Francisco, the campus is uniquely beautiful on a day to day basis. The mixture of foggy to sunny weather patterns, hills that seem to climb for miles, and the skyscrapers of downtown are all parts of a remarkable campus setting. Unfortunately, studying a lot is a major part of college life, but we are lucky enough to have many study areas in which to choose. The Lone Mountain Library is one of my favorite places to get my work done.
USF bought Lone Mountain in the 1970’s for 5 million dollars when the San Francisco College for Women closed down. That was quite a bargain considering the use we get out of that campus, not mention its incredible views of the city. The library located on the second floor in the east wing, has become a place for studying and is so quiet even pulling out a chair seems to create a racket.
The Joseph A. Gleason (of no relation to Gleeson whom the library on main campus was named) library was originally part of the women’s college. This was a place the wealthy families from around Northern California would send their daughters to get only the best education. According to Father Kotlanger in charge of the USF archives, everything was top of the line. All the woodwork that is in the room now is original and was hand painted and artists w
ere brought from all over the world to contribute. Even the light fixtures had special sheep skin covers, the chairs were hand carved in Europe, and the flooring was brought in from all over the world.There is a storage room in the far right of the library, under the floor. It goes down three stories. In the late 1980’s, someone was cleaning it out when they came upon some Salvador Dahli prints. They were original lithographs.
When the school closed down, all the books, 100,000 of them brought in from all over Europe, were sold and sent to other libraries. The books in there now are old encyclopedias, simply there to fill in the space.
Gleason Library boasts a regal and classy setting unlike anywhere else on campus. It has hosted many students and their books over the years and I have enjoyed being part of its history.
3 comments:
I'm definitely going to go up there and look at everything again. The 3-story storage space is interesting, I'm going to look for it. :p
Also, good job on the blog. Good use of sentences such as: "hills that seem to clumb for miles" and "even pulling out a chair seems to create a racket" it totally paints the picture of hills in SF and the quietness of the library. :) Also, for the constructive criticism, you spelled Dali wrong.
I looked up the spelling of Dali and that's how it's spelled. There is an accent over the "i" but I don't know how to get that on that computer.
Post a Comment