B. Davis Schwartz Library (Brookville, New York)

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Increases in enrollment at Post coupled with the addition of a variety of new academic programs highlighted the need for library expansion. Plans were drawn up for a new library to be built on the former football and baseball fields, which were then moved to the southern part of the campus. Bradley J. Delehanty, who passed away just before construction was started, originally designed the building. As a result of Mr. Delehanty's death, Alfred Shaknis and Peter S. Van Bloem were called in to complete the project. The groundbreaking ceremony for this new structure took place on May 9, 1966.

This current, Jeffersonian-style library, cost six million dollars to build and occupies 175,000 square feet on a five-acre site on Northern Boulevard. It was named the B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library in memory of the late B. Davis Schwartz, a benefactor of the college and former member of its Board of Associates. It took 3 years to construct and opened on October 15, 1969. The presiding official was Robert Payton, the President of LIU Post.

According to Dr. R. Gordon Hoxie, who served as LIU Post's first dean, (and subsequently its provost, president and Long Island University chancellor) construction on the B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library was the first time that the University opted to emphasize the importance of artistic style and architectural beauty over capital constraints.

The B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library is a magnificent three-story brick building with an imposing structure, white Vermont marble pillars, and white porticos. It was projected to house the existing collection of 300,000 documents as well as to provide ample room for growth of up to 1,200,000 documents. It was projected that this capacity would not be reached for another fifty years.

An interesting feature was the so-called "Library's stairway to nowhere." This stairway was supposed to lead to the sixth-floor book stacks, which were never built because of monetary concerns.

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