The original, historic library building is the Fisher Ames Baker Memorial Library; it opened in 1928 with a collection of 240,000 volumes. The building was designed by Jens Fredrick Larson, modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and funded by a gift to Dartmouth College by George Fisher Baker in memory of his uncle (Fisher Ames Baker, Dartmouth class of 1859). The facility was expanded in 1941 and 1957–1958 and received its one millionth volume in 1970.