Butler Library
535 West 114th Street | also 1100 Amsterdam Avenue | Morningside Heights | built 1912
Open on the map12 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1930
Nicholas Murray Butler asks Harkness to fund a brand-new library on South Field
Butler had first hoped to finish the unfinished University Hall for library use, and James Gamble Rogers drew up plans that included a bridge to Low Library. That scheme was dropped because large parts of the hall would have had to be rebuilt to carry the weight of books. In December 1930 Butler changed his request to Edward Harkness and asked him to pay for an entirely new building on South Field, facing Low across 116th Street.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1931
Edward Harkness agrees to pay $4 million for Columbia's new library
In December 1930 Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler asked the philanthropist Edward Harkness to pay for an entirely new library on South Field, rather than finish the unfinished University Hall. James Gamble Rogers settled on a Neoclassical design in April 1931 to suit the McKim, Mead & White campus, and Harkness pledged $4 million. Butler wanted to honor Alexander Hamilton, but trustees insisted on Butler's own name; the building was called South Hall until 1946.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1934
Columbia sends twenty-two miles of books down a slide into the new library
In 1934 Columbia University moved the library's twenty-two miles of books from Low Library into the newly built Butler Library by way of a giant slide. A 2013 Paris Review post on the episode observed that the slide looked less fun than it sounds and was too shallow for people to use.
Source: theparisreview.org
- 1934
Eugene Savage paints the Videbimus Lumen mural in the entrance lobby
The large lobby mural was painted in 1934 by Eugene Francis Savage. Its Latin title comes from Columbia's motto, in thy light shall we see light. Athena anchors the composition, echoing the Alma Mater statue in front of Low Library, and the imagery touches on light, social struggle, fascism, and the buildings of Columbia and New York.
“The large mural in the entrance lobby, titled Videbimus Lumen... was painted in 1934 by Eugene Francis Savage.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1946
Butler Library takes Nicholas Murray Butler's name in 1946 after years as South Hall
Soon after construction began, Butler proposed naming the building for Alexander Hamilton, but the trustees insisted on naming it after Butler himself. Because that seemed improper while he was still president, the building carried the placeholder name South Hall. It kept that name until 1946, the year after Butler retired, when it became Butler Library.
“…the library was given the placeholder name of "South Hall" until 1946, a year after Butler's retirement, when it was renamed to Butler Library.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1984
Ghostbusters puts Butler Library behind its title card
The 1984 supernatural comedy Ghostbusters shows the exterior of Butler Library in the background of its title card. The building on screen is the largest single library at Columbia University, ten stories tall, with a three-story colonnade of fourteen Ionic columns across its front that echoes the one on Low Library.
“The library also appears in the 1984 supernatural comedy film Ghostbusters. The exterior is shown in the background on the film's title card.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
Laura Hotchkiss Brown and four friends unfurl a banner of women writers over Butler Library
At the 1989 commencement, Laura Hotchkiss Brown and four friends stretched a banner across the facade of Butler Library to protest that the names carved on it, from Homer to Vergil, were all men's. Campus security removed it almost immediately. The banner reappeared later that fall and again for a day in 1994, during Women's History Month.
Source: cnn.com
- 2012
Poe's Raven mantel moves to a more visible spot in Butler's rare book library
The fireplace mantel beside which Edgar Allan Poe is said to have written The Raven was salvaged in 1888 from a farmhouse on the Upper West Side and given to Columbia in January 1908. The university's art properties office says it came to Butler in 1974 and sat in a storage mezzanine on the sixth floor. In late May 2012 it was quietly moved to a hearth-like corner of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com
- 2016
Columbia bars its marching band from playing Orgo Night inside Butler
Every semester since 1975, the Washington Examiner reported, the Columbia University Marching Band had played in the library at midnight on the first night of final exams. In 2016 the administration barred the band from playing inside. The Examiner, citing the campus outlet BWOG, said chief librarian Ann Thornton allegedly made the decision because the event would disrupt students studying. The band was left to play its skit and music on the steps outside.
Source: washingtonexaminer.com
- 2016
Students protest plans to put a Henry Moore bronze at the library's front entrance
Columbia planned to install a copy of Henry Moore's bronze Reclining Figure directly in front of the entrance to Butler Library. Students pushed back. Part of the protest focused on how news of the installation reached campus, through an easy-to-miss post on the Public Outdoor Sculpture Blog. Three students and an alumnus also published an op-ed in the Columbia Daily Spectator opposing the sculpture.
Source: columbiaspectator.com
- 2019
A banner naming eight women authors goes up on Butler Library with the university's support
On October 2, 2019 a banner naming Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Ntozake Shange, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gloria Anzaldua, Diana Chang and A. Revathi was hung from the roof of Butler Library for the fall semester. Student organizers of the Butler Banner Project had surveyed students about names and made the final choices over the summer, thirty years after the 1989 commencement protest.
Source: nydailynews.com
- 2025
Protesters take over Butler's Reading Room 301 and police clear it that night
On the evening of May 7, 2025, protesters chanting pro-Palestinian slogans took over a reading room in Butler. The group Columbia University Apartheid Divest said about 100 people had taken over the main reading room and called it the Basil-Al-Araj Popular University. Acting President Claire Shipman said two public safety officers were injured in a crowd surge. Police led at least 78 people out of the library with their hands zip-tied.
Source: nbcnews.com
Further reading
- Butler LibraryWikipedia
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