Mills Memorial Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida

[LIB7614] The second dedicated library building on campus, Mills Memorial Library was built between 1949 and 1951.

Costing over $500,000, the building was almost 30,000 square feet and had a capacity for over 150,000 volumes. It featured a periodicals lounge, microfilm room, reserves reading room, large reference area, photo lab, and projection room.

The Mills building served as the Rollins library and Archives department until the early 80's, when the new Olin Library was constructed. [Website]

Public Library, WINTER PARK, FLORIDA FL

Winter Park History and Archives Collection

“The perfume of the orange blossoms . . . the beauty of every scene, combine to make me wonder whether I am not in Paradise,” wrote one visitor to Winter Park, Florida, in 1918. Just five miles north of Orlando, Winter Park’s oak-lined brick streets and its quiet lakes have been attracting visitors since the late 19th century, when U.S. president Chester A. Arthur declared, “This is the prettiest spot I have seen in Florida.” The New England–like city in the heart of the subtropics was once home to the Seminole Hotel, the largest resort south of Jacksonville. In 1885, prestigious Rollins College was founded here, the first institution of higher learning in Florida. [Source: Arcadia Publishing]