by Cheyenne Witzeling
In spring 2026, the UW–Stevens Point Libraries opened a new building on the Stevens Point campus. The Library and Student Resource Center (SRC). Located in the same spot as the Albertson Learning Resource Center (later Hall), the SRC is four floors of library materials, study spaces, and student services. Many community members remember studying in Albertson. Some can even remember studying in what is now the Student Services Building. But let’s rewind the clock even farther; how did the first students at UW–Stevens Point access their books?
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| Taken between 1894 and 1900, this was the Normal School Library. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
The college we know today as UW–Stevens Point started as the Stevens Point Normal School. In November 1893, the foundation was laid on land that once belonged to E.D. Brown and the Nathaniel Boyington Company. The first building, now known as Old Main, featured a stone-faced basement, pressed brick upper stories, gray-blue slate roofing, and semi-circular arched entrances. On April 26, 1894, over 5,000 attendees celebrated the cornerstone being laid. Regent Hume of the Oshkosh Normal School described the institution as:
“For the masses, being for and of the people, where the high and low,
rich and poor, native and foreign, can alike partake in the benefits offered”
(Paul).
The School
opened September 17, 1894, with 366 students, more than
double the enrollment of most other normal schools in Wisconsin. At the time, Old
Main was the only building on campus, and the library occupied a room adjoining the
assembly hall on the main floor. At the April 1895 meeting of the Board of
Regents, they authorized hiring a professionally-trained librarian.
Isabelle Patterson was hired as a clerk and librarian and was tasked with creating a
card catalog and index. She was the first trained librarian
hired by a Normal School in Wisconsin.
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| Photo from the Stevens Point Journal, 6/8/1934, page 8. |
Patterson didn’t have to do all the work by herself, however, and was soon joined by Lizzie P. Swan, who assisted with cataloging new titles. By 1895, the library collection had already grown to over 4,000 books and 200 bound periodicals. Swan left the library in 1896 when head librarian Irene Warren was hired. Warren oversaw library services, implemented the Dewey Decimal System, and met with all Normal School students each week to direct their work in library reading. Patterson moved to overseeing the textbook library and was the acting clerk in the president’s office.
There were immediate, positive changes made to the library after the college opened, including incandescent lights, open shelving, and staffing changes, which all benefited students who were required to use the library. The presence of the Normal School library caused a growth in off-campus libraries, too. In 1897, the Stevens Point Normal School had 3,950 books. Adding the Stevens Point Public School and all Portage County district and town libraries, the public had access to 2,879 books. Warren created lists of suitable books for public libraries, helped develop a circulation system for the new Stevens Point Public Library, and collected books and photos for traveling libraries in rural areas. In 1897, Warren left to become head librarian at the Chicago Normal School. She was succeeded by Elizabeth F. Simpson of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Two years later, the library created its first assistant librarian position, which was filled by Genevive McDill.
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| Elizabeth F. Simpson, in the 1902 Pointer. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
The First Library Expansion
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| Photo taken in 1901, showing the west wing expansion. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
In 1904, Mary Dunegan joined the library as an assistant. Over the next few years, leadership changed frequently. Head librarian Elizabeth F.
Simpson resigned and returned to Michigan as an assistant librarian, and her successors, Ethel R. Sawyer and
Cara Swenson, joined and left the college as head librarians within a year.
Stability returned in 1908 with the hiring of Alexandrine LaTourette as head librarian. She and
assistant librarian Dunegan handled the majority of library work with the help of student employees.
To access textbooks and other materials, students visited the library in Old Main and checked them out, with each transaction recorded by the librarian in a paper ledger. Wooden tables and chairs provided shared study space, typically overseen by the librarian who ruled the room with a stern eye. There were plenty of jokes in the student newspapers and yearbooks about needing to be quiet in the library, including the section below from the 1909 yearbook, The Iris:
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| Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives |
The Second Library Expansion
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| Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives |
Old Main was still the only building
on campus, and once again the library was short on space. In 1921, a library
renovation project was approved and completed by December 1922. But the
library was not fully accessible to students and faculty until the fall of
1924. Why? The delay stemmed from a critical oversight: the renovation plans hadn’t taken the weight of the books
and bookcases into account. Steel posts needed to be added in the gymnasium
below, and securing the funding and construction took considerable time. During these years, librarians worked out of a partially remodeled library and storage
space, safeguarding more than 13,000 volumes.
In 1927, assistant librarian Lulu
Mansur became head librarian at the newly renamed Central State
Teachers College (CSTC), joined by new assistants Ethel Malee and Mary Gustin. As CSTC expanded and began offering four-year teaching degrees, the need for additional library staff grew. Mansur alternated between head and assistant librarian roles during her career, finally retiring at the end of the
1940-41 academic year. The 1942 Iris yearbook was dedicated to her and her “untiring
efforts to make our library outstanding.”
The Third Library Expansion
The physical library space continued to evolve alongside its growing collections and services. In 1929, a new building was constructed for Training School students, now known as the Communication Arts Center (CAC). This allowed for renovations within Old Main, where the library expanded into two adjoining classrooms. Cork flooring and felt padding were installed over the wooden floors to reduce noise, and the rooms were repainted and redecorated.
As President Robert Dodge Baldwin noted at the time,
“it is hoped that with the enlarged facilities for the library which will result from the renovation now in progress, and of which advantage can be taken as soon as the rooms are vacated by transference of classroom space to the new training school building, the library will be able to give at least twice as efficient service as at any previous time.”
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| A photo inside the Training School library in 1931, shared in The Iris. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
Indeed, it did. The Training School collection, which we now call the Instructional Media Collection (IMC), moved with students to the Training School Building. Another campus building, the Orthman Demonstration School, housed a small library for elementary students. Students from the nearby town of Carson attended this school and were taught by Normal School teacher trainees.
By placing these collections closer to the students using them, the main library in Old Main was able to reclaim some much-needed space.
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| Taken from the 1930 Iris yearbook. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
George C. Allez served as head librarian during the renovation project and the relocation of the Training and Demonstration School Libraries. In 1933, he spoke to the Stevens Point Kiwanis Club, where he noted:
“Education does not stop with youth, but is a process which continues from the cradle to the grave.”
Allez’ time at the CSTC library was marked by expansion. He built a strong reference collection and gathered government documents, including a complete century of congressional records. He also introduced a divided catalog, allowing students to search by subject or author information.
When
the Training School library outgrew its space, Allez oversaw its relocation to
another section of the building and its expansion into a model library for primary students. In 1936, he was
elected president of the Wisconsin Library Association. He remained head librarian at CSTC until 1938, when he left to work at the library
school at what is now UW-Madison.
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| A photo of the expanded library inside the Training School, from the 1935 Iris. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
Lulu Mansur continued as interim head librarian until a successor was appointed. During her tenure, library circulation doubled while staffing remained steady. In 1940, the Iris yearbook noted that the library had higher circulation than any other teacher’s college in Wisconsin, with a collection of almost 40,000 books.
In 1941, Nelis R. Kampenga became head librarian. He also served as the university
archivist and president of the Portage County Historical Society. During his tenure, the library established the first federal documents repository in the System and developed of an area research center on
campus. In recognition of his contributions, the UW-Stevens Point Archives is named in his honor.
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| Taken from the 1949 Iris yearbook. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
Looking to the Future
In 1951, the Central State Teachers College became the Wisconsin State College-Stevens Point. With this change came a renewed focus on campus infrastructure, including the library in Old Main. That same year, a proposal for a new library building made it clear what many already knew: the existing space was no longer adequate.
Although the library in Old Main had been expanded
to store 35,000 volumes, library holdings were closer to 45,000. The stacks had been closed
to students in its final years of operation due to overcrowding. Seating was limited to 125 students, leaving as little as 1.5 feet of table space on a three-foot-wide table per person. At the same time, the
library was serving approximately 775 full-time students each semester.
It was long past time for a new library building.
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| From between 1950-53. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
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| From between 1950-53. Photo from the UW-Stevens Point Archives. |
The first 65 years of the UW–Stevens
Point library were marked by rapid growth. The library expanded twice within Old
Main and distributed collections across two other buildings, yet still struggled to keep pace with demand. Librarians also played a key role beyond campus, helping local schools and communities establish library programs and connecting the campus library to broader government and
research organizations.
This story is built from primary sources held in the UW-Stevens Point Archives, records that continue to document the people, spaces, and work that shaped the library over time.
Come back next month as we continue the story!
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| Inside the Old Main library during the last few years of operation. Photo from the UW - Stevens Point Archives. |
Below, find additional information and sources used in this blog post.
Circulation data, taken from the earliest
library records in the UW-Stevens Point Archives:
- 1897-98: 22,852 items circulated.
- 1904-05: 27,987 items circulated.
- 1910-11: 23,031.
- 1914-15: 20,854.
- 1923-24: 19,921.
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| From The Pointer, November 9, 1933, page 1. |
Circulation data, taken from the earliest
library records in the UW-Stevens Point Archives:
- 1936-37: 42,180 items circulated.
- 1939-40: 38,216.
- 1940-41: 20,950.
- 1942-43: 18,267.
- 1943-44: 17,310.