Thompson Library - Back to the Oval

Thompson Library - Back to the Oval

Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Ohio State University Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You finish where the Long Walk ends. Thompson Library opened in January 1913, a Beaux-Arts design by the Boston firm Allen and Collens, chosen in a 1910 competition. It was renamed in 1951 for William Oxley Thompson, Ohio State's fifth president, who led the university while the building went up.

From 2007 to 2009 the library had a $108.7 million renovation. The architects restored the original east front and the Grand Reading Room, removed later additions, and built a light-filled new west wing with an atrium. Glass walls on the lower floors of the 1951 book tower let you see the stacks of books, and a passage on the ground floor carries the line of the Long Walk right through the building.

It is the largest of Ohio State's libraries on the Columbus campus. Visitors can usually step inside to see the Grand Reading Room, with its replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Then walk back out to the Oval, where you began.

Getting here: Walk east from Buckeye Grove back toward the Oval for about 8 minutes; Thompson Library's glass west wing faces you as you approach.

Did you know?: The 2009 renovation added 49 engraved Foundation Stones carrying words in different writing systems from around the world.

Photo op: Stand on the Oval at the end of the Long Walk and frame the library's columned east front straight on.

More on Wikipedia: William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library · William Oxley Thompson · Winged Victory of Samothrace

Stops on this tour

  1. The Oval - Where Desire Paths Became Sidewalks
  2. University Hall - The First Building, Rebuilt
  3. Wexner Center for the Arts - A Building That Looks Unfinished
  4. Ohio Union - Campus Living Room
  5. Hale Hall - The First Union at a State University
  6. Orton Hall - A Building Made of Ohio
  7. Browning Amphitheatre - Shakespeare in the Ravine
  8. Mirror Lake - A Spring, a Legend and a Retired Tradition
  9. Ohio Stadium - Welcome to the Horseshoe
  10. Buckeye Grove - A Tree for Every All-American
  11. Thompson Library - Back to the Oval