Note: This is part 2 of a 4-part series. You can read Part 1 here and Part 3 here.
High on the docket in the late 1970s was the need for a new library. Wrenn library, shown in the picture and also the current Admission’s building, was opened 40 years earlier and no longer fit the needs of the campus community.
The college High Points magazine highlighted the discussion of the new library.
Chief among plans for the immediate future is the construction of new library facilities. This much discussed and long-felt capital need received official sanction this year. The College needs new library facilities as an academic and comprehensive learning resource center. No need — or desire — of the College is so pressing or so obvious. Numerous actions were taken during the year by the Board of Trustees to see that well-made plans will turn into the reality of a modern facility.[1]
Several staff and faculty served on the library committee including then library director, Marcella Carter, Dr. John Moehlmann, and Dr. James Stitt. Dr. Stitt was one of the institutions longest serving faculty members. He attended HPC and left to finish his doctorate and then returned to teach. He was a professor at the school for 47 years and passed away in 2016.
The chair of the committee, Dr. Warren Bird, was the library director of the Duke University Medical Center Library. When asked about a new library Dr. Bird noted that, “A library is not a building,” he said. “We need a new facility, and our needs may produce a new building, but the library is inside the building.”[2]
Many donors were found for the project even before the planning had been completed. For example, Annie Powell donated a trust in memory of her late husband, William T. Powell and we are pleased that it still serves the same need for which it was designated – rare books – in what is called the Powell Room.
Campus enthusiasm was high, and it was reported that in 1977 students and faculty raised $23,000 toward the new library fund.
Finally in the spring of 1981, “Charles E. Hayworth, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of High Point College announced in his speech (at convocation) that he was planning to officially ask the Board for an estimated three million dollars for the proposed library.” Zenith 1981
The new library was built across from Wrenn and beside Roberts Hall and at 50,000 square feet was a big step-up from the current overcrowded library. By 1982, 1.6 million of the 3-million-dollar construction cost had been raised and the college was anticipating the completion of the new library.
This is the news report as it shown in the 1981 High Points, the university magazine.
Courtesy of the High Point University Archives
Finally, a major donor was found, and the naming rights went to Herman and Louise Smith. Herman Smith served on the Board of Trustees from 1973 to 1984 and in 1988 received an honorary degree from the college. Although, of this couple it was Louise Smith who was the most impressive. It was noted in the Greensboro News and Record upon her death in 2015 that she received her pilots license in 1940 and flew for the Civil Air Patrol during World War II, she was one of the first women to get a helicopter pilot license and was a longtime donor to High Point University. McEwen Dorm is named in honor of her mother. (Read more here.) 
Library staff in 1983. Carol Aderholt was the interim library director.
“Throughout the day, students and faculty knew progress was being made as completion of the Herman H. and Louise M. Smith Library drew near. The library being built in the style of Roberts Hall will increase the space of Wrenn Memorial Library and will increase the accessibility. Since students will have better access to the volumes, they will be able to increase their knowledge and build their futures. The completion date for the library is expected for the spring of 1985.” Zenith 1983
On February 1. Students formed a line and passed books from the stacks in Wrenn library to the new shelving in Smith Library.
The return of the Roberts Hall bible was one of the stranger stories that comes out of the book move to the new library. During the move, materials that were in poor condition were discarded in bins. Students that were helping were encouraged to check the box and take items they wanted.
One of the items discarded and taken by a student was the Roberts Hall bible. It was given to the school on the first day of classes in 1924 by the Roberts family. The bible was in disrepair and was taken from the discard box along with a couple of other volumes by Scott Morgan, a current student at the time. 30 years later Scott returned to close up his parent’s home in High Point, found the volume where he had left it years earlier and he returned it to Smith Library as a donation. Restoration work cost several thousand dollars, but the bible was brought back to life and is currently on exhibit in Smith Library.
The inscription reads:
This Bible is today presented to the Roberts Memorial Hall; In loving remembrance of our sainted and much beloved “Uncle Calvin and Aunt Caroline Donnell Roberts”. Feeling that this building is the proper place for it, because as their loved ones we know that this act would meet their highest approval.
(Read more about the Roberts Hall bible and the 1924 Founders Day here.)
Helping with the final planning and the arrangement of the new library was Tom Gaughan, the library director from 1983 to 1988.
The next installment will cover the development of new technologies and how that affected the development of the modern library we know today.
-Blog post by David Bryden, Director of Library Services
[1] High Points, Fall 1977.
[2] High Points, Fall 1977.