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Document Library. Hoover Tower was constructed between 1939 and 1941 by Arthur Brown Jr. It was inspired by the cathedral tower at Salamanca and was finished at the 50th anniversary of Stanford’s founding. Due to its location and height (285 feet), Hoover Tower is one of the most visually prominent buildings at Stanford.
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If it were laid end to end, the shelving required to store the complete collection of works held by the Hoover Institution—both in the tower library and throughout the rest of the compound—would stretch over 25 miles. To make the most of the tower's vertical space, "mezzanines" were constructed between the main levels to create additional capacity ...
In 2009, audio preservation specialist Jim Sam found a recording of a radio show broadcast during the 1940s that mentioned it was produced "in the radio room of the Hoover Tower." Subsequent research revealed that the room, located on the first floor (now the wheelchair-accessible entrance), was originally used to monitor foreign military broadcast...
The Hoover Institution's reputation as a conservative think tank has at times put it at odds with other groups on a largely progressive campus. In 2006, more than 1,000 students, faculty and community members demonstrated, forcing a meeting between then-President George W. Bush and Hoover fellows to be relocated off-campus. And in 2007, nearly 4,00...
Between 1975 and 2000, the institution library received several large shipments—47 manuscript boxes, 29 cubic foot boxes and 44 card file boxes—of materials pertaining to Ronald Reagan's political career. Included in one of the boxes was his personal collection of jelly beans. The Hoover archivists debated whether or not the confections constituted...
A giant "music box" apparatus occupies the tower's 13th floor. The original carillon was part of the 1939 World's Fair in New York. It was gifted to Hoover by the Belgian government and was used regularly until the playing mechanism was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. In 2000, the 35 original bells, the largest of which is inscribed "Fo...
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What is the Hoover Institution Library & Archives?
Hoover Tower is a 285-foot (87 m) structure on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, United States. The tower houses the Hoover Institution Library and Archives , an archive collection founded by Herbert Hoover before he became president of the United States .
In the conversation, Stanford University director of architecture Sapna Marfatia, University of Cincinnati architecture professor Jeffrey Tilman and Hoover Institution Library & Archives director Eric Wakin discusses Hoover Tower’s construction, structural evolution, and symbolic importance.
Architectural historian Jeffrey Tilman has indicated that designer Arthur Brown, Jr.'s (1874–1957) inspiration for the top of Hoover Tower was a Spanish Romanesque model: "Sometime in 1939 Brown took the drawings to Hoover's home, and while in discussion with him about how the tower might fit into the Romanesque campus, Lou Henry Hoover made ...
The papers of Arthur Brown, Jr. include correspondence, professional papers, clippings, and architectural drawings, pertaining to Hoover Tower and other buildings designed for Stanford University.
Stanford University architectural drawings collection, 1889-2015 This collection documents properties owned by Leland and Jane Stanford; buildings on the Stanford University campus and other properties owned by the university; faculty houses on campus; and bike and pedestrian pathways.
