Lyon Gardiner Tyler, the
president of the College of William & Mary, raised $20,000 (), which made
William & Mary eligible for a matching donation from the
Carnegie Foundation to construct a library. This fundraising was part of Tyler's broader campaign to further develop and expand
William & Mary's campus to accommodate the college's increasing number of groups. It would be the college's first free-standing library; previously, the library had been housed in the
Wren Building.
Colonial Revival architecture arrived at the college with the construction of the now-demolished first Taliaferro Hall in a style akin to the nearby
Brafferton in 1894; the new library would follow this styling. The accepted construction bid was for $14,297 (). The building was dedicated on May 14, 1909. The brick building's initial interior layout of the building was in a T-shape inside an 80 ft by 30 ft frame.
Ewell Hall was opened in 1926 on the site now opposite Tucker Hall along the Sunken Garden. By the time of a fire at a neighboring hall in 1930, a cupola was visible atop the library building. the hall now serves as the home for the college's English Department. It was renovated in 2013. A bronze statue by Gordon Kay of U.S. president and college alumnus
James Monroe was installed in front of Tucker Hall in 2015. The statue's granite base features bronze reliefs. The statue was vandalized in 2018 with graffiti saying "slave owner". ==References==