原名羅氏圖書(shū)館，1916年落成后為圖書(shū)館，又稱(chēng)紀(jì)念堂?，F(xiàn)稱(chēng)紅樓圖書(shū)館。
紅樓圖書(shū)館的前身是羅氏圖書(shū)館。1915年歲首，奠定隅石，次年初夏落成?！凹t樓”可謂“樓如其名”，從外墻、窗格、正門(mén)到屋內(nèi)的木梯都是紅色，這也延續(xù)了圣約翰建筑群的整體風(fēng)格。立面形式仍然采用清水磚墻、硬山屋頂，不同的是圓拱券窗不見(jiàn)了，全部為狹長(zhǎng)的平窗。正立面二樓為一排布置緊湊的狹長(zhǎng)平窗。中西參半兩層建筑，鋼筋水泥及磚木結(jié)構(gòu)，入口朝東，突出軸線(xiàn)，講求對(duì)稱(chēng)，總體感覺(jué)莊重肅穆。
The Red Building Library was formerly the Low Library. At the beginning of the year 1915, the university laid the cornerstone of the library, which was completed in the early summer of the following year. The red building , as its name suggests, has its exterior wall, window panes, front door to wooden staircase inside all painted in red, which carries on the overall style of the St. John’s building complex. The facades are still dry walls of bricks and Chinese gabled roofs, with the exception that the round-arch windows are replaced by long and narrow casement windows. On the first floor of the front facade is a row of long and narrow casement windows in compact arrangement. It is a two-storey building with a mixture of half Chinese and half Western architectural elements, and reinforced concrete and brick-and-timber structures. With an east-facing entrance, it maintains symmetry of the structures along a prominent axis. Overall, it conveys a feeling of solemnity and dignity.
圖書(shū)館藏書(shū)極為豐富，曾任美國(guó)紐約市市長(zhǎng)、哥倫比亞大學(xué)校長(zhǎng)的羅氏也與其弟向圣約翰捐贈(zèng)多種書(shū)籍，故圣約翰圖書(shū)館被命名為羅氏圖書(shū)館。1932年統(tǒng)計(jì)，圖書(shū)館藏書(shū)量達(dá)43000余冊(cè)，中西文各半。1949年時(shí)藏書(shū)量更是達(dá)到12萬(wàn)余冊(cè)。
The collection of books in the library was extremely abundant. St. John’s Library was named “the Low Library” in gratitude for Seth Low (who had been mayor of the New York City and president of Columbia University in the United States) and his brother, both of whom generously donated a variety of books to the library. In 1932, the library collection reached over 43,000 books, half in Chinese and half in foreign languages. By 1949, the collection reached more than 120,000 copies.
1952年，華東政法學(xué)院成立并接收這座圖書(shū)館。1958年，華東政法學(xué)院與上海財(cái)經(jīng)學(xué)院、上海復(fù)旦大學(xué)法律系、中國(guó)科學(xué)院上海經(jīng)濟(jì)研究所和上海歷史研究所合并，成立了上海社會(huì)科學(xué)院，該館便成了上海社會(huì)科學(xué)院圖書(shū)館。1963年和1979年華政兩度復(fù)校后，該館仍為上海社會(huì)科學(xué)院所有，直到1999年上海社會(huì)科學(xué)院將圖書(shū)運(yùn)走后移交空館舍。
In 1952, East China Institute of Politics and Law was established and took over the library. In 1958, it became the library of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences when it was established by merging East China Institute of Politics and Law with Shanghai Institute of Finance and Economics, the Law Department of Fudan University, Shanghai Institute of Economics and Shanghai Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The library remained under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences after the two reopenings of ECUPL, in 1963 and 1979 respectively, until 1999 when the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences removed the books and transferred the vacant building to ECUPL.
