Branford Price Millar Library
university library in Portland, Oregon
The Branford Price Millar Library is the library of Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon, United States. Built in 1968, the academic library was doubled in size in 1991 and houses over 1 million volumes. The five-story building is located on the school's campus on the South Park Blocks in Downtown Portland and is the largest academic library in the Portland area.
History
In 1959, the first PSU library building, Library East, was completed under the presidency of Branford Millar, second president of Portland State College, serving from 1959 to 1968. That library had its 1 millionth visitor in 1962 and was replaced in 1968 with the Branford P. Millar Memorial Library. Portland State was known as Portland State College until 1969.
In August 1989, construction began on an $11 million expansion of the library that doubled the size of the facility. Constructed by Wildish Building Company and designed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the expansion added the curved glass wall on the east face of the building providing views of the South Park Blocks. Paid for by the state of Oregon, the expansion also remodeled the existing structure. The 72,000-square-foot (6,700 m2) addition was completed in 1991 with a dedication ceremony held on November 3, 1991.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Branford Price Millar Library” as university library in Portland, Oregon. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as university library in Portland, Oregon. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4957327. VIAF identifies the subject as 139528099. The Library of Congress control number is n50078190. Authority coordinates are 45.512, -122.686. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 1991, 1959 and 1962.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Branford Price Millar Library”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Branford Price Millar Library primary sources, Branford Price Millar Library archive and Branford research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Branford Price Millar Library”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Branford Price Millar Library” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.