The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
1963–1987 — the university's library, summarized here
The boundary note: The county's largest library is not the county's. Fourteen stories above the Notre Dame campus stands the Hesburgh Library, opened on 18 September 1963 as the university's Memorial Library and renamed in 1987, the year of Father Theodore Hesburgh's retirement from the presidency — a university research library whose full record stands in this history's Notre Dame file. Its tower carries the building's famous face: the Word of Life mural by Millard Sheets, 134 feet tall by 68 feet wide, whose raised-arms figure of Christ overlooks the football stadium and is known everywhere by its nickname, "Touchdown Jesus." The mural's particulars and the building's own history are printed in the Notre Dame record; it is noted here only to keep the map honest — South Bend's public library and Notre Dame's research library grew up three miles apart, and neither is the other.
Sources:
- Society of Architectural Historians, SAH Archipedia, "Hesburgh Library" — the 18 September 1963 opening as Memorial Library and the mural's dimensions, 134 by 68 feet.
- Wikipedia, "Hesburgh Library" — the 1987 renaming; cross-referenced to this history's Notre Dame file for the mural panels dispute and the building's full account.