Fifty years ago, Thomas Cooper Library got bigger – a lot bigger.

In the summer of 1976, Thomas Cooper, which opened in 1959 as the university’s undergraduate library, became USC’s primary library after undergoing a massive expansion that not only tripled the square footage of each of the building’s existing floors but also added four new floors underground.

The extra space was much needed. Both USC’s student body and its library collections had grown explosively in the post-World-War-II era. But it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the expansion would happen at Thomas Cooper, or that the bulk of the new space would be constructed belowground.

So as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Thomas Cooper Library as we know it today, we decided to take a look back at the circumstances and the decisions that led to TCoop becoming the space that it is today.

Visionary thinking, too-small spaces: a brief history of USC libraries

When the building that now houses the South Caroliniana Library on the USC Horseshoe was completed in 1840, it became the nation’s first freestanding academic library. A century later, though, even with a significant 1920s expansion, it had become too small to house the university’s growing collections. In 1941, a new main university library, named for recently deceased USC president J. Rion McKissick, opened at the head of the Horseshoe. In 1944, a new main university library, named for recently deceased USC president J. Rion McKissisck, opened at the head of the Horseshoe. Within a decade, however, the university’s collections also outgrew the space available to them in McKissick Library. Over time, books began to accumulate in piles around the building, with no place to shelve them.

In 1959, the university again expanded its library space by building a separate undergraduate library on Greene St.  Designed by noted architect Edward Durell Stone, who also designed the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, it was the first freestanding undergraduate library in the South, creating a model that many other universities would soon follow. But it was not large. Across three floors, two aboveground and one below, it provided study space for up to 600 students and shelf space for far fewer books than McKissick held. Initially known simply as the Undergraduate Library, it was named for Thomas Cooper, the university’s second president, in 1968.

By that time, it was clear that McKissick was far too small to serve as the university’s primary library, and university leaders began to explore various options for additional library space. One proposal that received serious consideration was to mirror the Capstone House dorm, which had just been built, by adding an 18-storey extension to the back of McKissick. That idea was vetoed by Libraries Director Kenneth Toombs, who pointed out that he didn’t have enough staff to oversee 18 separate floors of open stacks. The next idea, which made it as far as the planning stage, was to create a large four-story extension across the back of McKissick. That one was nixed by South Carolina’s then-governor, Bob McNair, who felt that the addition would take up too much of Gibbes Green, the quad behind McKissick.

Then, in casting around for other alternatives, university leaders began eyeing the undergraduate library. Because of its architectural significance, it couldn’t be expanded upwards. And because of the fraternity housing behind it, it couldn’t be expanded that far backwards. But there was enough space to its rear to add on about 180 feet. And in that space, there was the capacity to take an approach that held particular appeal at the time of the early 1970s energy crisis: going underground, where temperatures were more stable, so that less heating and cooling would be needed.

Plans were drawn up for an expansion that would not only make each of Thomas Cooper’s existing floors three times their initial size but also add four new belowground levels underneath the addition. Planning began in 1969, digging in 1973. When the hole behind the existing library was complete, it was 150 feet wide, 180 feet long, and 55 feet deep. Filling it in with four floors of stacks space would require 6,000 cubic yards of concrete. Longtime Libraries employee Lynda Wyman, who was working in McKissick at the time, recalls, “When they finally finished digging the hole, they let the Libraries staff come over in groups and look at it. And we were stunned—it was massive.”

“The jewel of libraries in the South”: Thomas Cooper from 1976-2026

That impression was accurate, says University Historian Evan Faulkenbury. When the expansion was complete in 1976, he notes, “it was described as being the jewel of libraries in the South – ultramodern and really expansive, with room to grow. Its designers said the size of the building was really unique.”

The newly expanded Thomas Cooper Library, which opened in June, 1976, was 284,976 square feet, with approximately an acre of space on each of its seven floors. It offered study space for up to 2,500 people at a time and capacity for 1.5 million books.

Moving the Libraries’ existing collections from McKissick to Thomas Cooper was a major undertaking. Wyman recalls being “awestruck” at the process: books were packed into specially made boxes, which were put on a conveyer belt running through a window from the stacks to the ground, then loaded onto trucks and driven the short distance to Thomas Cooper, where they were unpacked and shelved. Wyman, who worked in cataloging, was part of the team that had to move the card catalog – which at that time was still a physical set of cards housed in drawers – into its newly expanded space. “We had to measure, in inches, the whole card catalog, which at McKissick was so crammed you could hardly look through it, and divide it by the number of drawers at Thomas Cooper to see how many inches could go in each drawer,” she says. “Then you had to figure out how to keep the holdings for each topic together. We worked from each end of the alphabet. One team was A – L and the other was Z – M. It was hard work.”

Those card catalogs are now long gone. And in time, the Libraries’ collections outgrew even Thomas Cooper’s extensive stacks space, necessitating the creation of a remote Library Annex. In the 1970s, students couldn’t eat or drink in the library; now they can buy Starbucks there. But fundamentally, Thomas Cooper is much the same physical space today as it was in 1976. That means even as the nature of library resources has evolved over time, several generations of USC students have essentially known and loved the same university library.

Renovation and reconfiguration: Thomas Cooper’s next chapter

With over 800,000 visitors a year, Thomas Cooper is one of the most heavily used locations on campus. While its size, resources and location continue to leave it well equipped to serve as the academic heart of the university, its aging infrastructure, including some systems dating back to 1976 or even 1959, make it ripe for a renovation, which the Board of Trustees approved in 2025.

Slated to start in spring, 2027, the renovation will replace heating and cooling systems, update electrical infrastructure, and make significant programmatic improvements to the building, including the creation of more flexible work and study spaces for USC’s still-growing student population. But even as it positions Thomas Cooper to meet the needs of a 21^st-century campus community, the renovation will also keep the building anchored in its storied past by restoring and preserving its midcentury modernist aesthetic.

“The exterior of Thomas Cooper Library is still a jewel box of a building, just like its designers described it decades ago,” says Faulkenbury, the university’s historian. “With the coming renovations, its historical significance will be preserved while extending the life of this unique building.”