Doheny Library - A Grieving Family's Gift
Photo: User:Padsquad19, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
A stop on USC Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.
This is the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, and its story begins with a tragedy. Ned Doheny, a USC alumnus and son of oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, was found shot to death with his secretary at his Beverly Hills mansion in February 1929. His parents gave about 1.1 million dollars, the entire cost of construction, to build this library in his memory. It opened in September 1932.
The exterior was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, one of the great church architects of his era, working with Samuel Lunden. They modeled it on the Romanesque churches of northern Italy, with pale brick, limestone and a great arched entrance. Statues of Shakespeare and Dante guard the doorway.
Inside, painted ceilings, carved wood and stained glass make the reading rooms feel like a cathedral of books. Hollywood noticed: the library appears in The Graduate and Matilda.
Stand back and take in the facade, then look closely at the carved stone around the doorway.
Getting here: Walk west along Childs Way for about two minutes to the large pale-brick library at the edge of Alumni Park.
Did you know?: The library was built to hold roughly half a million books, and a 1960 expansion about doubled that capacity.
Photo op: From the lawn of Alumni Park, frame the arched entrance straight on, with the sycamores at the edges of the picture.
More on Wikipedia: Doheny Library · Edward L. Doheny · Ralph Adams Cram · Greystone Mansion
Stops on this tour
- Tommy Trojan - The Warrior at the Heart of Campus
- Bovard Auditorium - Where Film School Began
- School of Cinematic Arts - The House That Lucas Helped Build
- USC Village - Hecuba Meets Tommy
- Leavey Library - Built for the Digital Age
- Widney Alumni House - Where USC Began in 1880
- Doheny Library - A Grieving Family's Gift
- Alumni Park - The Campus Living Room
- Hahn Plaza - Rally Central
- Mudd Hall of Philosophy - A Monastery for Thinkers
- Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum - Three Olympics, One Stadium
- Exposition Park Rose Garden - From Racetrack to Roses