Herring-Cole Hall
Herring Library opened in 1871, fifteen years after the founding of the theological school that is now St. Lawrence University. Financial support came from one Silas Herring who gave the $10,000 it took to build. The building represents an early example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. The style is characterized by the massive chimney, the rounded arches on the windows, the deeply recessed arched door, the random ashlar style of the masonry in which rough cut interlocking stones are set in patterns without continuous vertical or horizontal courses, decorative cresting on the ridge of the roof, and the exposed structural elements on the ceiling of the interior. The building is made of local Potsdam sandstone.
The interior was meant to resemble Oxford or Cambridge complete with stained glass windows, wooden stacks and flooring. All that remains of the original interior is the marble on the main floor.
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Cole Reading Room was added in 1902. Financial backing for the addition came from Edward Cole, a prominent Universalist. The interior of the Cole Reading Room is a period piece in natural golden oak, with wainscoting, fluted Corinthian columns supporting an oak railed mezzanine and bookcases, elaborate hammerbeam trusses for the roof with decorative ornamented tie rods (used to keep the wall from collapsing outward) which are indicative of design at the turn of the century. The exterior of the Cole Reading Room also used Potsdam sandstone.
As a Library Up until the late nineteenth century Herring Library was open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 2-4 p.m. It was heated, apparently poorly, by a wood stove and could not be kept open after dark because there was no lighting. The first full time librarian was a quill pen wielding 
mathematics professor named Moses Marsten. The collection he presided over numbered in the hundreds and was largely Greek and Latin classics. By 1939 the collection had grow sufficiently, however, to start thinking about a new building, and by 1950 the library had annexes in Richardson Hall, South Hall, the Men's Residence, and Dean-Eaton. This meant that catalog cards had to be brought to Herring-Cole, and in the winter, they were brought by sled. Construction on the Owen D. Young Library began in the fifties.
Fun Fact Two dates are inscribed on the Cole side of Herring-Cole: 1902 and 1904. The second date is courtesy of the class of 1904 who, one night, carved their mark into the building as a tribute to themselves.
Information for this page was drawn from Herring-Cole Library: A Report to St. Lawrence University by Paul Malo (1968), and from comments by Ms. Lynn Ekfelt on the history of Herring-Cole. These documents are available in the SLU Special Collection and Archives, in the Buildings and Grounds collection, Record Group Twelve.
