Hunter Library, completed in 1953, was the product of a $2 million building fund provided by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1949. Built in part upon a former football field, it was enlarged in 1967 and more than tripled in size in 1983. For fifty years Hunter has been a depository for federal documents. It is named after Hiram Tyram Hunter, who was President of Western Carolina Teachers College, a forerunner of Western Carolina University.
From: Curtis W. Wood and H. Tyler Blethen, A Mountain Heritage: The Illustrated History of Western Carolina University (Western Carolina University, 1989): 131-132, 139, 146, 152, 153, 185, 200.

• History: Building was completed in 1953; extended in 1967 and 1983
• Dimensions: 3 floors and 2 mezzanines; 154,886 sq. ft.
• Seating capacity: 700
• Volumes of books, serial backfiles, & other paper materials: 515,025
• Number of e-books: 247,001
• Number of microform units: 1,563,378
• Audiovisual materials: 18,017
• Number of current serial subscriptions: 45,184
• Library instruction presentations: 246
• Students served: 5,098
• Library web hits: 570,082
• Reference transactions: 26,572
• Circulation transactions: 145,388
• Total library operating expenditures: $ 4,182,035
• InterLibrary loans to other libraries: 7,647
• InterLibrary loans received from other libraries: 8,218
• Public service hours in a typical Week: 103.5
• Gate count in a typical week: 13,245
• Total Staff: 54