{"id":1557,"date":"2017-11-15T12:46:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T17:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2024-05-07T13:37:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:37:16","slug":"a-palace-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/a-palace-of-books\/","title":{"rendered":"A Palace of Books"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two years before construction of the Guggenheim Mansion was complete, the estate\u2019s architects (from the same firm that built the New York Public Library) won a gold medal for the building\u2019s design.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<header>FAST FACTS<\/header>\n<hr>\n<div class=\"fact\">\n<p class=\"mediumnumber\">1905<\/p>\n<p>Year<br \/>\ncompleted<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<div class=\"fact\">\n<p class=\"mediumnumber\">2<\/p>\n<p>Years of<br \/>\nconstruction<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<div class=\"fact\">\n<p class=\"mediumnumber\">1<\/p>\n<p>Gold Medal Award for architectural design<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<div class=\"fact\">\n<p class=\"mediumnumber\">337,087<\/p>\n<p>Books housed today<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Built as a summer cottage for Murry and Leonie Guggenheim, known for both their extravagant wealth and their philanthropy, the mansion was fashioned in the Beaux Arts style and modeled after the Petit Trianon in Versailles. The original estate sat on eight acres and included the 35-room mansion, a small pond, and a carriage house (which today houses the Lauren K. Woods Theatre). With a white stucco exterior, largely white interiors, and numerous floor-to-ceiling windows and doors, the cottage had a light, airy feel and was less extravagantly decorated than other summer homes built by wealthy families of the time.<\/p>\n<p>After his parents\u2019 deaths, Edmond Guggenheim, who ran the family foundation, offered the estate to Monmouth Medical Center. But locals petitioned against the move, with many saying they preferred the estate instead be donated to Monmouth College.<\/p>\n<p>The property was officially conveyed to the college on September 9, 1960. Since then there have been two major construction projects: a four-story addition built in 1967 and a $14 million expansion and renovation project completed in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the&nbsp;Murry and Leonie Guggenheim Memorial Library is home to more than 300,000 books\u2014472 of which were written by Monmouth University authors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monmouth\u2019s library was once a summer retreat for one of America\u2019s wealthiest families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents","category-tides"],"thumbnail":"<img width=\"300\" height=\"212\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-300x212.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1565 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" role=\"presentation\" style=\"object-position:50% 50%;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-768x542.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-1024x723.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-2800x1976.jpg 2800w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-2048x1445.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-1536x1084.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-1400x988.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-828x584.jpg 828w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-360x254.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library-9x6.jpg 9w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/library.jpg 3200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>","catString":"Currents, Tides","issue":"Fall 2017","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13986,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/13986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}