Williams Memorial before the addition of Downes Clock Tower.

The Williams Memorial Library Reading Room

Williams Memorial was the College's Library building, completed in 1914. It was funded by J. P. Morgan and named for Rt. Rev. John Williams, Class of 1835. Prior to Williams' construction, the Library was housed in Seabury Hall.

In 1910, during a fundraising campaign organized by John J. McCook to raise half a million dollars, John Pierpont Morgan, a Trinity Trustee, pledged $150,000 to build the college a new library, which had quickly outgrown its space in Seabury Hall. There was also a need for a memorial to Bishop Williams, as voted by the Trustees in 1899, so the building would serve both purposes.

Morgan, who passed away in 1913, selected Benjamin Wistar Morris, Class of 1893 of the New York firm La Farge and Morris, to design the building. Morris had recently designed the Connecticut First Regiment Armory and the Morgan Wing of the Wadsworth Atheneum. It was intended to house the library as well as administrative offices in “an English treatment of French Gothic” which harmonized seamlessly with the older Long Walk buildings. Interestingly, the building had no cornerstone or cornerstone ceremony, but was formally dedicated on October 31, 1914.

Williams Memorial was constructed at a 90-degree angle to Jarvis Hall on the Long Walk, in an effort to continue growing the campus according to Burges' original plans. It was intended that a Chapel be built opposite, where Cook Hall stands now.

In 1952, a new college Library was built across the quad between the athletic fields and Clement Chemistry Building. Today, Williams Memorial houses Human Resources as well as the President's and other administrators' Offices.

Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, p.48.

The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 276-279.