1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

484 THE SCROLL.the lake, are the university buildings. These are twelve innumber and constitute, with the fifty acres of campus andpark upon which they are situated, as goodly an equipmentas will be found among the smaller colleges of America.The original college building was completed in 1803 andcompletely destroyed by fire in 1824. The corner stone ofthe new building was laid by Lafayette in 1825. "The OldMill," as it is called, was completely remodeled in 1884.Its length is 250 feet, greatest width 68 feet and height ofspire 150 feet. Here are the chapel, the administrativeoffices, recitation rooms and rooms for students.The Billings library was presented to the university in1885 by the Hon. Frederick Billings of the class of 1844.The building, one of the finest specimens of Romanesquearchitecture in America, was designed by H. H. Richardson,the greatest of American architects, by whom it was consideredhis masterpiece. The material is brown stone. Thedesign is simple, massive and graceful, rich and quiet. Thebooks, which number almost 70,000 volumes, are shelved inalcoves, to which the students have direct access.The museum building was for many years the President'shouse, but on the erection of the present "President's Mansion"was moved to its present site just east of the latter.The engineering building, a large brick structure just eastof the museum, contains, besides recitation rooms, completeapparatus for the study and practical application of engineering.The experiment station, at the south extremity of the collegepark, contains recitation rooms, library, laboratories,offices and dormitories of the State Agricultural College.The Williams science hall, standing between the "Mill" andthe library, extends 175 feet along University Place. It isbuilt of brick and terra-cotta, and has three main floorsbesides a large basement and attic. The departments ofchemistry, physics, biology and electricity have spaciouslaboratories and testing rooms in this building, which isstrictly fireproof and contains all the most approved modernappliances for instruction and research.The Converse dormitory, a building constructed from blueRutland marble, rockfaced, in the collegiate-gothic style, consistsin three separate halls joined in one structure about anopen court. In its four stories are forty-eight suites containingone study and two bed rooms each. The heating is bysteam, but each study contains a fire-place. This buildingwas presented to the university by J. H. Converse, '61.