T.J. Day Hall, Linfield University (Northrup Hall; Linfield-McMinnville Library) - McMinnville OR

City:: McMinnville, OR
Site Type:: Education and Health, Libraries
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Started:: 1935
Completed:: 1936
Designer:: Pietro Belluschi
Quality of Information:: Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

In 1935, the City of McMinnville applied for a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant to construct a public library on the grounds of Linfield College. As explained in the region’s major newspaper, the Oregonian, the library was to be built by the city with a local bond ($36,000) and the PWA grant ($29,250). In this unusual arrangement, the City leased the library to Linfield, making the college responsible for its maintenance and operation. Initially, the public could use the library by paying the same fee for access required of the students.

Located on the northwest edge of campus, the Linfield-McMinnville Library conformed to the College’s campus plan. Pietro Belluschi, one of Oregon’s leading architects of the period, designed the red brick Colonial Revival-style building with touches of modernism. These include a modernist detail on the neoclassical, broken pediment of the front doorway and an Art Deco sculptural piece near the front steps.

Linfield College named its library Northrup Hall and expanded it with a compatible addition to the rear in 1962. Additional renovations took place in 2010 to prepare the building for Linfield’s new Center for the Northwest as well as for use by four departments. While marking these changes with a new name, T. J. Day Hall retains the reading rooms, fireplaces and window of the original structure.

Source notes

Adams, Bree (2009) “Northrup: History in the Re-Making,” The Linfield Review. October 9, 2009. Northrup: History in the re-making – The Linfield Review

"Court to Clear Issue of Bonds: McMinville Library to be Begun Soon as Possible," Oregonian. December 7, 1935. p.8.

“Northrup Hall, now T.J. Day Hall, Coming Back to Life,” Linfield News. December 17, 2010. https://www.linfield.edu/linfield-news/northup-hall-now-t-j-day-hall-coming-back-to-life/

“88 PWA Projects Now Under Way,” Oregonian. February 19, 1936. p.4.

Short, C. W. and R. Stanley Brown (1939) “McMinnville Library, McMinnville, Oregon,” Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration. Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office. p.138.

Site originally submitted by Judith T. Kenny on June 3, 2021.