West Point Library and Science Building
By Robert Mills, 1839
Ink and wash on paper
20" x 16" National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Office
of the Chief of Engineers
Robert Mills's West Point In 1839 Robert Mills designed the Library and Science
Building for the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Completed
in 1841, the east wing housed the academy's library and the west wing
the superintendent's office. The academy's observatory instruments occupied
the center dome until 1881 when a new observatory was built. Known for
his Neoclassical architecture, Mills occasionally worked in the medieval
style seen here. His rejected 1841 design for the Smithsonian Institution
resembled this design for West Point and had a similarly shaped dome.