The James D. Hoskins Library and Kefauver Wing is comprised of the original (east) portion that opened in March 1931; a tower addition begun in 1932 and completed in 1934 to house the Eleanor Deane Swan Audigier collection of art objects and furniture; an addition begun in 1957 and completed in 1959; and the 1966 Kefauver Special Collections Wing. The original library design called for a total of five units (including the tower).
The original (east) wing, a 50,000-square-foot building designed by Barber and McMurry cost $305,000. Its architectural style is Collegiate Gothic (an adaptation of the Gothic cathedral of the Middle Ages that employed pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and spacious windows as major design characteristics). It sports gargoyles at its entrance and was designed for a capacity of two hundred thousand volumes and five hundred seats.
The tower addition was added at an approximate cost of $22,000, when, in December 1931, the university received the extensive furniture and art collection of Eleanor Deane Swan Audigier from her widower, Louis Audigier. The tower addition was completed in 1934.
The 1959 addition, designed by Barber and McMurry and built by Johnson and Galyon Contractors for $864,791, nearly doubled the square footage of the building, adding seating capacity for more than twelve hundred students and increasing volume capacity to seven hundred thousand.
The library was named for Dr. James D. Hoskins, 14th president of the university, on June 3, 1950. The building is on the site of the Victorian home of W. W. Woodruff, purchased by UT in 1925 and used as a women’s dormitory until razed for construction of the library.
In 1977 renovations of the library were made that relocated the circulation department to the first floor and created a new exit on the White Avenue side of the building.