Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/198

 170- A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO thousand feet long and three hundred and sixty-seven feet wide, cut by two streets into three parts, a compact tract, traversed by no streets, twelve hundred and sixty-six feet long and eight hundred feet wide. This change was recognized by all as desirable, but half of the Trustees felt that so large an expenditure as a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, even for so desirable an object, could not be justified. The recommendation was therefore referred back and the committee instructed to make an effort to secure better terms. Only eighteen months before Mr. Field had sold to the University the block immediately adjacent to the one now offered, for about fifty per cent less money than he was now asking. The effort, however, failed and the division of sentiment among the Trustees continued. On January 6, 1891, Mr. Goodspeed wrote to Dr. Harper: The committee was disposed to offer one hundred or one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and Mr. Ryerson, Mr. Walker, and others will assume the liability. The University will, of course, own the property and pay for it, but these men will stand under the obligation. The difficulty in the case is that Mr. Field will not sell for any sum we are willing to pay. Mr. Field offered to give five thousand dollars toward the pur- chase of the extra block, but the Trustees hesitated to assume, while the original site was still not paid for, so great an obligation, which they saw no way of paying. On March 4, 1891, Mr. Goodspeed wrote to Dr. Harper, who was, as a matter of course, in favor of purchasing the additional block, as follows : I feel very anxious that our building committee shall get to work. This agitation about the site, however, has brought everything to a stand. So far as I can ascertain the Board is evenly divided on the question of securing the additional block, and what the final result will be no man can now tell. No doubt you and Gates and Blake talked the matter over in New York. You found them both opposed to the project and I have wondered how it fared with you in the hands of two such positive men. Five days later the Secretary wrote again to President Harper on the same subject, that the Committee on Buildings and Grounds intends to take up the question of securing the additional block of ground and dispose of it. I fear we may have trouble over it. Some feel that we have land enough now, that we shall be widely blamed if we begin our history by