Oakland/Mills College, Alameda County
East Bay Loop area, San Francisco Bay Area region
Margaret Carnegie Library Building
The Oval, Mills College
5000 MacArthur Boulevard
Oakland, CA 94613
opened 1906
Academic library from 1906-1989
currently a private academic building
grant amount: $20,000
architectural style: Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival
architect: Julia Morgan
The Mills College library, named in honor of Andrew Carnegie's daughter, is
the only California Carnegie designed by noted Bay Area architect Julia
Morgan. The Spanish Colonial Revival building is located on the Oval near El
Campanil. Now housing administrative offices, the Carnegie's upstairs
reading room still contains some special collections, provides space for
conferences, and also offers an unchanged example of the Morgan emphasis on
craftsmanship with tall square wooden columns supporting intricate braced
rafters.
Carnegie funded only two academic libraries in California; the other is at
Pomona College, in Claremont. Mills College received $20,000 in 1905. Two
years earlier, Julia Morgan had designed the Mills oval and campanile,
establishing a Mission style. Her later contributions to Mills included the
gymnasium, infirmary, and a nearby Chinese Girls School that was later
incorporated into the campus. Earthquakes have figured in the library's
history. Its original dedication date was postponed because of the 1906
quake. When the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred, the library collection
had just been moved to a large modern addition built adjacent to the Carnegie;
this enabled the college's administrative functions to be temporarily relocated
in the Carnegie from the damaged Mills building.
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