By Greg Forester / Staff Writer
Plans to raze the Princeton Theological Seminary’s Speer Library and replace it with a new facility continue to draw opposition from some Princeton residents. The plans will be the subject of a Princeton Regional Planning Board hearing set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Some 30 concerned residents attended a meeting called by the Mercer Hill Historic District Association on Saturday morning at Nassau Club. Many in the group called upon the school to reconsider its plan and further explore renovating the structure or at least consider maintaining the façade.
Some residents at Saturday’s meeting said they will attend the Planning Board meeting Thursday to voice their concerns during the public comment period.
”There are some of us in the neighborhood that have concerns with this plan,” said Bruce C. Rob Robertson, a Princeton resident who led Saturday’s presentation.
The 76,000-square-foot library — along with the nearby Henry Luce Library — serves the institution’s 700 students and 40 faculty members. Seminary officials contend that the 51-year-old structure, which sits between Mercer Street and Stockton Street in the Mercer Hill Historic District, should not be renovated and should instead by replaced.
Others, including members of the Princeton Borough Historic Preservation Committee, contend that the Speer Library is an important building, built in the Collegiate Gothic style and similar to other historic structures including Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Memorandums issued by the committee, questioning the seminary’s plans, were distributed by Mr. Robertson and others at Saturday’s meeting.
Mr. Robertson said the razing of the Speer Library, which is named after statesman Robert E. Speer, would be the latest loss among a series of architecturally significant structures on Princeton Theological Seminary grounds that have been demolished over the years, including two earlier libraries and several large houses. The sequence of demolition and constructions suggest that the seminary has not created a master plan or an overall plan for development, he said.
Librarian Stephen Crocco said the structure has become increasingly obsolete and does not meet the needs of the institution’s students and faculty for access to the school’s world class collection of literature.
”People have come to expect certain things in a library that this just doesn’t provide,” Mr. Crocco said.
He said the Speer Library building is not energy efficient, has poor lighting and occupies an excessively large footprint of land.
Mr. Crocco also said, however, that the seminary’s plans are still in the preliminary stages and officials there will continue to communicate with residents and the community.
Some audience members suggested construction of a book-storage structure near the library to accommodate the seminary’s needs. One man said the existing structure lacks sufficient foundation support for modern book storage equipment. Former Borough Council member Wendy Benchley, who has taken issue with the demolition plans, said she recognized that institutions need to expand, “but this is difficult.”
The Speer Library sits within a veritable treasure trove of historic structures and homes. Notable structures in the district include the Trinity Church, the historic Morven mansion, and houses that were once occupied by Woodrow Wilson, T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Albert Einstein.
There have been no demolitions in the neighborhood since 1985, when Princeton Borough Council passed an ordinance creating the Mercer Hill Historic District, according to the presentation.
