Ralph Pickard Bell Library

Ralph Pickard Bell Library,
49 York Street, Sackville, N.B. 
RALPH PICKARD BELL LIBRARY
1970
With the facilities of the Memorial Library being seen as increasingly inadequate (its capacity was 140,000 volumes) planning began in 1966 for a new library. The result was the new 5 storey, octagonal Bell Library with a 400,000 volume capacity which opened in October 1970. The library is built into the side of the hill which slopes from the upper campus down towards Convocation Hall. The exterior is clad in a mixture of red and olive sandstone. In the interior the top three levels are open with the book stacks arranged around the perimeter of each level. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Brown, Brisley & Brown.The building is named in honour of Mount Allison’s first Chancellor Ralph Pickard Bell, a generous benefactor of the university.
Leroux, John and Thaddeus Holownia, A Vision in Wood & Stone: The Architecture of Mount Allison University, (Kentville, N.S.: Gaspereau Press, 2016), pp.183-187.

See Ralph Pickard Bell Library Directory on the Mount A web site.

On Mount Allison’s first Chancellor Ralph Pickard Bell (1886–1975) see

Williams, W. John E., Ralph Pickard Bell: A Biography (Lockeport, N.S.: Community Books, 2000).

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