THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Laying of the Corner Stone Of the New
Chapel Building.

The Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College were summoned to their annual fall meeting on Thursday of the present week at Amherst, for the purpose of reviewing the work of the College for the year and making up a general summary of the condition of the institution.

The corner stone of the new stone chapel building was to be laid on Thursday, with exercises appropriate to the occasion, We note the event as the Ploughman goes to press, being unable to give a fuller statement of the ceremonies. Gov. Robinson was invited to be present and make pertinent remarks. The foundation of the new Chapel is well advanced toward completion, and it is expected that the walls will be ready for the roof by December 15th. The structure will probably be ready for the pubic graduating exereises in Jane next. It is to be two stories in height, and built of Pelham granite, taken from the College quarry In Pelham, with brown stone trimmings from Longmeadow quarries. The entire buildings will cost $25.000. It will be recollected that the last legislature made an appropriation for the purpose. A detailed description of the building was given in last week’s Ploughman. The College is in a prosperous condition, both industrially and Intellectually, and fully realizes today the fond wishes of its supporters and friends. It is more and more becoming the institution of which so high a conception was formed in the beginning, and that is saying a great deal for It is a the present stage of its usefulness. With the continued support and favor of its friends, including the State government It cannot fail of achieving the noble results which were uppermost in the
minds of Its founders.

The farm appears to be skillfully managed, with a view both to thoroughness and economy. During the past summer 60 tons of English hay have been harvested, and during the fail from 10 to 15 tons of rowen. The corn in the fields is now being drawn into the barn. There were 12 acres in corn, the total yield being over 1300 bushels of ears, in addition to the stalks. Over 30 tons of mangel warzels will be taken from less than an acre and a-quarter, being of the Yellow Globe variety. Over 709 bushels of carrots will be the product of one and one and one half acres. And there are 15 acres in English turnips, averaging 100 bushels to the acre, or 1500 bushels for the entire crop. The field of 25 acres back of the boarding-house is being ploughed in view of planting It to corn in the Spring. Thoroughbred pigs have of late been largely raised for the market, the favorite breeds being the Chester Whites Yorkshires, and Berkshires.
 

"The New England Homestead"  Dec. 20. 1884

An agricultural college that lacks facilities for teaching practical agriculture has a want that should be supplied in advance of all others. Massachusetts should at once furnish the needed agriculture library at her state college. Then the higher education in the natural sciences may properly provided for.
 

"New England Homestead" Feb. 21, 1885

A meeting of the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural college, held in the Commonwealth building on, Thursday, Feb. 12, elected George Noyes secretary of the board for  the unexpired term of Hon Charles L flint resigned. Mr. Russell has three votes. Senator William R. Sessions of Hampden, who has been appointed by the governor and council to fill the vacancy caused be the resignation of Mr. Choate was present for the first time. So were Messars W. H. Bowker and Arthur A. Brigham, the two graduates who were appointed as trustees by the governor on the recommendation of the alumni, who were pleasantly received. The matter of adjusting the insurance on the recently burned building was left with the building committee of the library, who was also to get plans and specifications for the rebuilding and submit them to the board at the next meeting. Improvements external and internal to the building will be made at the suggestion of the board No difficulty is anticipated in adjusting the insurance on the burned building which It is expected will fully replace the loss sustained. One of the best things done was appointing $300 to advertise the college. Pres. Greenough and Mr. Bowker were appointed to a committee to do this, and the president delegated his duties in this matter to Prof. Goodell. On motion of Mr. Bowker It was voted to have the by-laws of the board codified and printed after submission to the next meeting. The whole meeting was pleasant and harmonious, and the trustees are enthusiastic in the hope that ere long the college will be strong and popular and full of students.

"Boston Journal"  June, 1885

Mr. Goodell of Amherst defended the Agricultural College form the attack made on it on Tuesday by Mr. Cross, when he moved the reduction in the Senate resolve providing for certain apparatus, buildings, repairs and furnishing at the institution. He outlined the work of the college, and showed that unless its requests were granted the college would retrograde and would be a failure. He was supported by Messars. Smith of Worcester, Dwyer of Boston, Perkins of Wenham Curry of Lynn, Board of Boston, Stevens of Boston and Sponner of Boston. Mr. Cross withdrew his amendments except those reducing the appropriation for building dormitories from $20,000 to $10,000 and for striking out $6,000 for the erection of a tower on the new chapel building. The amendments were rejected with few votes in their favor, and the bill was passed to be engrossed be a unanimous vote,
 

"The New England Homestead" July 18,1885

Prof. Manly Miles, professor of agriculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, is making an extended investigation of the western agricultural colleges, with a view to apply their best points to the Massachusetts institution.

For professor of practical agriculture and farm superintendent at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Prof. William P. Brooks, ‘75 is suggested. He occupies a similar position at the .Japan Agricultural College, where he has been for several years.

Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, 1886

The New Chapel Building  (Old Chapel)

Peter Madden of New Haven, CT., Contractor, has 22 men at work on the tower of the new chapel.. Some of his men are at the quarry in Pelham, and he also has a gang of men working on the new addition to St. Mary’s Church which he contracted to build in Northampton.  Mr. Madden built by contract the new city hall in Holyoke, and was the foreman  on the new church on College hill in this town. Another large force of carpenters and painters are at work on the reconstruction of the old chapel building. Henry Haskins is the master carpenter. The interior has undergone a complete change. The stairs to the second story have  been  turned about, so that the ascent is now to the north. while is used to be on the South side, next the wall of the building, ascending to the West. The room formerly used for chapel and public services, has been made into two spacious rooms, one 22 x  40 and the other 35  x 40. The North room will be temporarily used by Prof. Miles, and the South room, which is the largest, for general purposes. Dr. Miles room would make a splendid museum for his numberless specimens of bacteria, representing practical agriculture in which he is a close student. Some $2,000 was appropriated for agriculture, and this department should have every cent of the appropriated expended in its behalf,— not for foolish, nonsensical notions of some monomaniac or poly-maniac, be he ever so well read or interested in his special hobby
of investigation, nor ought it to be invested In buildings for which other special appropriations were made. Then, the interior of the West wing of the old chapel building has been reconstructed.  The chemical laboratory, used by the students, has been enlarged by taking assay the partition on the south side, thus letting in the south light which before was entirely shut out. New yellow pine floors have been laid in  all the rooms in the first story, but it seems as if the chemical department was being somewhat overlooked in these new improvements. We have been informed that Dr. Goessmann has never been consulted t all, and has had no voice in  the matter whatever. Prof. Goessmann is a practical man, a scientist who has perhaps done more for the college, and is doing more every day for its reputation in Massachusetts and abroad  then any other man. From a practical standpoint, it  would seem as if the State ought to have the benefit of his judgment in the construction and fitting up of A laboratory, which is a  matter that has a vital bearing in connection with the chemical department of the college. The college will no doubtless be compelled, and that, too at no very distant day, to give up entirely the services of Dr. Goessmann, a loss which drill be greatly regretted by the alumni and friends of the college. He will doubtless serve the Commonwealth, we hope, for a long time to come, but it will not probably be as professor of chemistry in the Agricultural College. On the second door of the  chapel building, two rooms are finished, of the same size as those under them on the first door. These will be used by Prof. Warner for his philosophical apparatus and lecture room. Over the laboratory is the lecture room of the professor of chemistry. While there are also two or three small rooms for Prof. Miles or some other professor. Prof. J. F. Perkins, the village knight of the brush, and his able corps of assistant are transforming the walls and woodwork from their natural colors into tints that take the eye of the student, and ought to make the genuine Yankee think twice before he disfigures them with his pen-knife and pencil.

The  New Dormitory (South  College)

G. H. Cutting, of the firm of Cutting & Bishop of Worecster, the contractors of
the near dormitory, is on the grounds giving his personal attention to supervising
the building, which is progressing rapidly. Thirty-five hands are now at work, and
fifty will be at work next week The basement walls rare nearly finished. The building is being built of brick, and will be embellished with brown stone trimmings, from Long Meadow quarries. G. F. Adams of Montague City has the contracted to furnish 600,000 brick. The lumber will come from the yard of George Vandyke of McIndoe’s Falls, Vt., and  John Marra of Holyoke will furnish the stone. The basement will contain one room suitable for Prof. Miles’ photograph gallery and another for a museum for plants and animals. These rooms are 24 x 42 and 14x12. The building will have what is called a “dormitory wing,” extending 152 feet West and being 35 feet wide. The tower will be in the southeast corner of the building and five stories high the building proper being only three stories with a pitched roof. The wings shall thus have three tiers of rooms, those in the dormitory wing being of the same size on each floor. In the dormitory wing each
study  room  pleasantly faces to the south and has a fire-place and ventilation, and each  has two sleeping-rooms connected with it. The study rooms fire 15 x l6 feet, and the sleeping rooms 9 x l2 feet. There are two study rooms  and only two sleeping  rooms on each floor of the tower, making twenty in all. Each suite of rooms is separated from the others by a solid brick wall that extends from the basement to the roof. There are 18 study
 rooms in the dormitory wing, and 36  sleeping rooms, making with those in the tower, 74 rooms besides lecture rooms. The other wing called the lecture-room wing, on the plan has one  room on the lower floor  and one room designed for the college museum; one is 21 feet 6 inches by 43 feet. These are connected by two smaller rooms, suitable for work rooms in connection with the museum; one is 21 feet by 14 feet 6 inches, the other l2 feet by 14 feet, 6 inches. On the second floor are two lecture rooms, 34 x 9 and 42 x 26.  W.C.
Brocklesly of Hartford, CT., was architect, and the building is to cost $35,000, including the heating apparatus and the plumbing.   Messrs Cutting & Bishop have a gang of 50 men at work on contract work in Worcester,  and another force of men in Whitinsville, a hundred hands in Salesville. R. I., and are building the new Lyman school building connected with the state reform school at Westboro.
 

"AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE"

Chapel

(Massachusetts Agricultural College, Annual report, 42nd., 1905, p. 68)
 
THE CHAPEL-LIBRARY BUILDING.

One of the most attractive and commodious buildings belonging to the college is the chapel-library. It has a commanding position, approximately in the center of the group of buildings adjoining the campus. the chapel occupies the entire second story. A large room, capable of seating about four - hundred, is used for daily prayers, Sunday services, the various commencement exercises, and not infrequently for lectures or social gatherings. The room has an excellent pipe organ. Two adjoining rooms are used for small religious gatherings, and meetings of the class teachers and of the faculty. The rooms can be thrown open so as to become a part of the main audience hall.

The entire lower story is given over to the library. This library is available for reference or investigation, and is open daily, except on Sundays, from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. and from 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. It is open on Sundays from 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.   The Volumes at present number 25,829. The library contains carefully selected books in the departments of agriculture, horticulture, botany, entomology and other natural sciences. Sociology, economics, history, literature, the fine arts and the useful arts are well represented. Constant additions will be made to secure the latest and best works in the several departments of learning.

"THE ALUMNI BULLETIN"   June 1937

Chime of Bell is Dedicated

Impressive Ceremony Marks  Presentation of Gift from Bernard Smith ‘99

President Baker: after speaking to the New York Alumni last autumn, you suggested that a chime of bells would be acceptable to the College. With your conditional! acquiescence, therefore, such a chime has been installed in the belfry tower of the Old Chapel. For all those who study here, may the music of these bells weave a pleasant and enduring strand into the colorful fabric of collage memories! For the college community of this fair valley,
may this chime bring a newfound pleasure in its morning greeting and in its “liquid notes that close the eye of day!” It is also our earnest desire that the blended tones of these bells revivify the personality and ideals of one whose voice is stilled — of one whose life and
accomplishments reflects such honor upon this, his Alma Mater.

It is my privilege, with the approval of the Alumni, to offer for your acceptance as President of the College and its Board of Trustees, this chime of ten bells. Now placed in the tower of the Old Chapel, they are ready to ring forth in enduring memory of one of our worthiest alumni. With these words did Bernard Smith ‘99 present to the College on Saturday afternoon, May 1, a chime of bells in memory of his classmate Dr. Warren Elmer Hinds.

In accepting the gift for the College President Baker said, in part:

“It seems as if one should be able to express on such an occasion the spirit of our College, particularly the love which has come from the beauty of the campus and from the life here as it has been lived by generations of students through the years. While this love is intangible and difficult to express, it has made for a fuller and more satisfactory life for our Alumni as they have gone out from the College through the past sixty years.

“When we who love this beautiful College go out to live our lives in other places, we turn back so very often, I am quite sure, with a yearning for the beauty of the campus and the joy of the years lived here.

“The man whose memory will be associated through the years with the chime which we are accepting today, and the man who has made possible this memorial, in their years away from the campus turned in thought almost constantly to the beauty of this place and the charm of the hills about it.

“For your College, for the Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, students and friends of ours everywhere, l take these bells and I promise you that we shall make them an inspiring and uplifting part of the lifts to be lived through the years in this beautiful place.’’
 
Then, Dean Machmer, who presided at the exercises, introduced Frederick H. Turner of Great Harrington, president of the class of 1899. Mr. Turner paid high tribute to Dr. Hinds, and concluded by saying:

“Who, forty-one years ago, thought that the curly-haired boy from Townsend, Mass.,
would achieve such distinction as has our classmate, W. E. Hinds?

“Who thought, at that time, that the farmer boy from Middlefield, B. H. Smith, who went to the college barn at five A.M. working his way through College, would be the giver of this chime.

“The rugged hills of New England. have produced many fine characters.

“May this chime be an inspiration to the present and to the future generations.”

The dedicatory address, Overtones, was given by Professor Frank Prentice Rand, and the full text of this address appears on page 12. After a benediction by Reverend J. Paul Williams a forty-minute concert was played on the chime by Chester Meneely in whose foundry at Troy, N. Y., the bells had been cast.

The dedication ceremony was held in the auditorium of Memorial Hall where four hundred guests — Alumni, students, members of the class of 1899 friends and relatives of Mr. Smith and Dr. Hinds gathered for the occasion.
 
Previous to the dedication, the College was host at a luncheon for Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Warren E. Hinds, widow of the man in whose memory the bells were presented to the College, and their relatives and friends.

After the dedication, Mr. and Mrs. Smith were host and hostess at a tea for their friends at the Lord Jeffrey Inn, and, in the evening, Mr. Smith entertained his classmates at dinner in Northampton.

The chimes are being played daily, and there will be a special concert for Alumni returning to the College on Alumni Day, June 12.

"ALUMNI BULLETIN" Nov. 1937

THE 1892 CLOCK

In last month’s Alumni Bulletin appeared an article by Professor A. A. Mackimmie telling of the occupancy of the remodeled old chapel by the division of humanities at the College. When he submitted the piece to us Professor Mackimmie left blank—for us to fill in—that part of the article which spoke of the gifts of chapel clock, illumination, and bells. When your editor filled in the information he incorrectly indicated that the clock was the gift of  J. Howe Demond, a former trustee. Hardly had the Bulletins left the alumni office when Dr. Edward B. Holland, president of the class of 1892, called our attention to the error. The clock in the chapel tower was the gift, in 1892, of his class;
and very proud 1892 was, and is, to have provided that important and attractive addition to the college life. Herewith our apologies to 1892.

We later heard from Frank Plumb ‘92 of Stafford Springs, Conn.; and Mr. Plumb thought the error was a bad one although he admitted he had heard of worse. He added, “Seriously, though, raising that twenty bucks apiece by the boys of ‘92 to pay for the clock was no joke. It pinched some of us at the
time, but the clock is a wonderful thing for us to look at whenever we return to the campus—especially  since we do not have to hustle to classes.”

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