Libraries elsewhere on campus cover specialized areas such as Business, Law, Art, Medicine, or Engineering.

This was replaced in 1900 by a separate building on the outer quadrangle, named the Thomas Welton Stanford library after its major donor.

Green Library's design was a significant and early departure from the architectural style of Stanford's Main Quad.

Jane Stanford held a design competition for the new library and chose the submission of Joseph MacKay, a San Francisco art glassmaker, which drew more on Romanesque style than the existing buildings.

Several stories tall, this original construction was refurbished in 1999 and now forms the main halls and rotunda of the library.