ALBERT BRENNER GLICKMAN FAMILY LIBRARY - When it was built in 1919, the T.A. Huston Company at 314-318 Forest Avenue was "the newest (and) largest...baking establishment in the East." Reports of the day also termed it "...a vast industrial wonderland," built to contain the very latest in bakery equipment. The building created an assembly line that commenced on the seventh floor for the efficient baking, packaging, and shipping of the company's line of cookies and crackers.
The company's founder, Thomas A. Huston, employed the latest technology whenever possible. His first bakery, established in Auburn in 1869, featured, "...the best in cracker-making machinery obtainable," a treadmill operated by real horse power.
Technology also played a role in the end of the building's history as a bakery. The National Biscuit
Company purchased the Portland bakery in 1931 and continued to operate it for another 23 years. But Nabisco closed the bakery in 1954 because the building could no longer accommodate the latest in bakery equipment.
Over the next 36 years, the former "...industrial wonderland" was used for storage and warehousing,
most recently as a plumbing supply company, Johnson Supply. Eventually it became vacant and fell into disrepair. In 1990, the University purchased the property and faced the challenge of converting it into a modern, technologically advanced library.
Work began in the Fall of 1991 on what had been originally the National Biscuit Company building (100,000 sq. ft. of space), later owned by the Johnson Supply Company, from whom the University purchased it.
Four of the seven stories were renovated (the remainder to be done as funds permit) and the Library opened in its new building on September 1, 1993 with official opening ceremonies October 3, 1993.
The Library provides a variety of study areas, over 300,000 books, periodicals and government documents (both Federal and State), reference service, inter-library loans and bibliographic searching of computer databases.
The remaining three floors were renovated and opened in 2004 and included a new facility for Special Collections.
The first floor was renovated in 2009 to expand the Osher Map Library and create a new front entrance for the library.