It’s been 100 years since the Heber J. Grant Building was dedicated on Oct. 15, 1925.
The Heber J. Grant Building was originally built as a library, but now serves as the school’s testing center.
In 1921, BYU President Franklin S. Harris first shared his plans to construct the Grant building. He said that building the library was part of his plan to make BYU the “great Church university” he envisioned. Harris proposed his plan to the Board of Trustees in September 1923, and the General Church Board of Education allocated $125,000 toward its construction.
The groundbreaking was held on Founder's Day on Oct. 16, 1924. A few months later, in January 1925, the Board of Trustees officially named it after Heber J. Grant, the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Cory Nimer, a senior librarian and university archivist at BYU, shared what the original library experience was like.
“At the time of its completion, the library had approximately 35,000 books and served 5,000 students,” Nimer said. “It was a closed stacks library, so books had to be requested at the desk and checked out before they could be used in the large, quiet study reading room on the second floor.”
As BYU’s population continued to grow, the need for a bigger library became crucial. In 1961, disciplinary libraries were built in the Eyring Science Center and the Smith Family Living Center. The main library was transferred to the J. Reuben Clark Library Building and renamed the Harold B. Lee Library in 1973. It was built to accommodate 600,000 books and was rated the number one college library in the U.S. by The Princeton Review in 2024.
After the Grant building discontinued its use as a library, it served various departments on campus. The College of Biology and Agriculture even turned it into a Life Sciences Museum that showcased animal exhibits and live animal shows. The museum was later moved to the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum.
In 1982, university administrators decided to make the Grant Building the official testing center at BYU. The testing center aimed to alleviate professors' stress regarding testing and also provided students with more flexibility, allowing them to take their test at times that worked best for them.
Although the Grant building experienced many renovations, Nimer shared that there are still some architectural details that hint to its original use as a library.
“The layout of the Grant Building retains some continuity with its original form, such as the stairways and the large reading room on the second floor,” Nimer stated. “The 1981-1982 renovations of the building also maintained the exterior of the building with its lamp and book relief elements by the doors and the inscription ‘Heber J. Grant Library’ on the south façade,” Nimer said.
BYU students often joke that the testing center is the place where most prayers are said on campus. Many people dread the Grant building primarily because it’s where they take difficult exams; however, many students also enjoy its environment.
When asked about her feelings toward the testing center, Rachel Settle, a biodiversity and conservation major at BYU, shared positive views.
“Honestly, this might not be popular, but I kind of like it,” Settle said. “It is a very calming testing environment. There are pictures of Jesus everywhere, and there are flowers … I used to take my AP tests in the high school gym, and that was really stressful to me.”
The BYU testing center employees strive to make students' testing experiences as positive as possible. William Arnett, a BYU testing center employee, shared how his efforts contribute to a tranquil testing environment.
“We try our best to make it peaceful, to make it a good environment for people to take tests,” Arnett said. “[We] try to make it easier on them, make it so there’s not any added stress.”
Even as time has passed, and the Grant building's purpose has changed, its development has been a key part in making BYU a “great Church university.”