1982: Expansion
By 1979, to house the Foundation’s quickly expanding collection, the Foundation began planning to construct a library annex addition to Spence Hall.
The annex–Freeland Hall–was completed in 1982.
The foundation’s work embraced four areas: 1) noncirculating library; 2) archives with sermons, pictures, correspondence, etc; 3) local church history program representing 5,000 churches; and 4) museum, which preserves and displays artifacts.
Despite the ample room and debt-free space provided by the newly-complete Freeland Hall, the reunion of PCUS and PCUSA in 1982-83 (which had split during the Civil War) ignited discussion of moving the Historical Foundation’s expansive collection to Philadelphia, so the records could be managed in one location.