Campus Buildings

Taggart Law Library

The law library was named for Jay Paul Taggart, dean of the ONU College of Law and university trustee. Dr. Taggart died in 1949, and his extensive personal library was given to the university. Legal materials were deposited with the law library and numerous other items were sent to the Heterick Memorial Library.  In 1953, his wife gave the university $50,000 to support the law library. At that time, the library was housed in the Warren G. Harding College of Law, later renamed Huber Memorial. The collection amounted to over 10,000 volumes. The law library was moved to the Tilton Hall of Law in 1973.

Rapid growth in the law library’s collections required that Tilton be enlarged. The university’s trustees began discussions on the construction of an annex at their October 1979 meeting. They approved opening the bidding process in October 1981, and construction was underway in December of that year for a 16,800 sq. ft. addition. The Thomas and Marker Construction Co. of Bellefontaine, Ohio was the project’s general contractor. The facility was dedicated on May 4, 1985.

At the same ceremony, the law library addition was named the Eugene N. Hanson Annex. Dr. Hanson had taught law at Northern from 1947 to 1984 and served as law dean from 1958 to 1973.

Although the Hanson Annex was a significant improvement, by the 1990’s the College of Law again needed more space. Starting with the groundbreaking on April 5, 1997, a further expansion added 15,000 sq. ft. It provided a basement storage area for the law library which allowed the entire facility to be re-organized. The improved library was more efficiently organized and offered better study facilities. Faculty offices were added across the north end of Tilton, a student lounge was added and many other areas were renovated. The formal project dedication was held in  October 1998,

Biography

Dr. Taggart was born July 3, 1886 at Jerusalem in Monroe County Ohio. He entered ONU’s law school in 1905 and graduated three years later, reportedly receiving the highest grade on the state bar exam. While at Ohio Northern, he was a member of the Philomathean Literary Society, of Sigma Phi Epsilon and of the Military Department’s Company D,

He practiced law in Ashland, Ohio between 1908 and 1914 when he returned to Ohio Northern to serve as dean of the College of Law, a position that he held until 1917. On October 12, 1909 he married Winifred Rutter, In 1917,

Taggart left Northern to practice law in Akron, Ohio. The following year, he joined the firm of White, Johnson, Cannon and Neff in Cleveland, He continued at that firm until 1945 when he joined Boer, Taggart, McClelland and Bolton.  

Dr. Taggart served as a member of the ONU Board of Trustees from 1930 until his death in 1949. He was the board’s secretary from 1935 onward. . In 1944, he was elected president of the Ohio Bar Association.