The Library Building is Turning 100

The classic revival building was designed by the San Francisco architect Albert Pissis, and was completed in 1912 at a cost of $150,000. Read more about the library building.

A rare view of the front taken when Cooper Medical Building and the Lane Hospital were demolished. Cooper Medical College was built in 1882 for $125,000 with funds from Dr. Levi Cooper Lane. Lane Hospital opened in 1894. Dr. Lane died in 1902. In 1986, Pacific Presbyterian physicians sponsored construction of a five-story medical office building at 2100 Webster. Read more about the history of CPMC.

A slate tile roof with copper filigree decorations tops off the building.

The library was originally dedicated as the Lane Medical Library for Stanford University. In 1959, Stanford University moved its medical school to Palo Alto. A contract signed in 1960 transferred all buildings and land to a new non-profit corporation sponsored by the Presbytery of San Francisco.

After Stanford moved the School of Medicine to Palo Alto in 1959, the building was nearly vacant for ten years, used for some PMC Auxiliary activities and as a storage facility. On October 8, 1970, the library was rededicated as the Pacific Medical Center Health Sciences Library -- the library for Pacific Medical Center and the University of the Pacific, School of Dentistry. Read more about the library building.

The stairs in the entryway lead up to a deeply recessed oak double door with glass panels and transom. The wrought iron railing and curved lines of the woodwork and moldings show the classical Beaux Arts style learned by the architect, Albert Pissis, in Paris.

Handmade brass and stained glass chandeliers and other light fixtures add to the rich effect.

The four-story oval spiral staircase has a wrought iron and oak railing and terrazzo steps with marble baseboard.

One of the fan-styled glass panel windows in the Romanesque archways, as seen from the interior, highlighting the staircase's wrought iron railing details .

Reading Room of Lane Medical Library in the 1920s. Photograph courtesy Stanford Medical History Center.

After the library reopened in 1970, extensive renovations were done over the course of a number of years. These were made possible through the combined efforts of Pacific Medical Center, The School of Dentistry, a grant from the National Institute of Health, and a generous gift from a private benefactor.

Closer view of the south wall of the Reading Room circa 1976

Today, the Library is a hi-tech facility with access to electronic resources, current and historic print materials, and comfortable areas for individual and group study or conferencing.

When the library building was built early in the 20th century, three murals for the reading room were commissioned from Arthur Mathews. This center panel is 8'x8' and shows the nine Greek Muses along with Hygeia, goddess of health, and a young Apollo, the god of medicine and leader of the Muses. Read more about the Health and the Arts Murals by Arthur F. Mathews

This is one of the three murals for the reading room commissioned from Arthur Mathews. It is a 8'x12' panel depicting a Medieval city (Italian) with a doctor in a red robe attending to a group of people in a public square. Read more about the Health and the Arts Murals by Arthur F. Mathews

This Arthur Mathews mural in the Reading Room, on the left of the center piece, is an 8'x12' panel showing a Native American healer beneath a spreading oak. Read more about the Health and the Arts Murals by Arthur F. Mathews

The tall Roman arched windows in the Reading Room allow ample natural light. Additional lighting are provided by overhead chandeliers and other light fixtures.

Six handmade brass and stained glass chandeliers grace the ceiling in the Reading Room.

This beautiful casement window located in the Guedel Room on the Mezzanine Floor is a memorial dedicated to Dr Margaret Blumerfeld, MD, an anesthesiologist who had many ties to the San Francisco Bay Area.