Upon the law school's move from DeLand to Gulfport in 1954, the library collection also had to be moved. The new house for the law library consisted of "several small cubicles" and at the time "all the law books 'fit into one moving van.'" The collection contained less than 18,000 books. In 1955, an anonymous donor pledged $250,000 to assist in paying for the creation of a new law library and classroom building. Within one year, the law school was able to raise the money to match the anonymous donation and met its $750,000 goal. It became known that the anonymous donor was Charles A. Dana and the Charles A. Dana Foundation. Construction on the new Charles A. Dana Library began in 1957. Students and staff transferred the small law library collection from the original location on the Gulfport campus to the new library in less than thirty minutes. This new library included space to expand the collection (housing for 70,000 volumes) and study space for 100 students. In 1958, the Charles A. Dana Law Library opened. The dedication of the library, made in the presence of Charles A. Dana, included a convocation by Florida's Governor, LeRoy Collins. The Charles A. Dana Foundation provided a gift in 1971 for the purpose of doubling the law library's size. The school completed the expansion in 1973 and provided space for 275 students and 160,000 volumes. During this time, the Charles A. Dana Library also became "the first law library in Florida to be a depositary for Federal Government documents." By 1981, the library's collection contained more than 165,182 volumes.