In 1909, Sir William Macdonald purchased Jesse Joseph House (known as “Dilcoosha”), to save the site from a hotel development. The house was eventually demolished and the McLennan Library now stands in its place. The library was completed in 1969 and was named after Isabella McLennan, who had made a significant donation for the purchase of books.
Designed in a Brutalist style of seven-storey precast concrete, the structure houses the library’s administrative offices, the Humanities and Social Sciences, Rare Books and Special Collections, the University Archives, and the University’s Welcome Centre.