Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/252

 222 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO was found to be too expensive and blue Bedford stone was adopted for the exterior walls and continued to be used in all the succeeding permanent educational buildings. At the same time it was found that the cost of the three buildings would be so great that the committee submitted, on November 16, 1891, a report written by Mr. Ryerson, from which the following quotations are made: The result of the bidding shows that the amount of space required in buildings of the quality which your committee think essential cannot be provided within the expenditure originally contemplated and authorized by the Board, to- wit, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but will necessitate an expenditure of at least four hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The bids further show that the Divinity dormitory, as planned, cannot be erected for the sum appropriated by Mr. Rockefeller, to-wit, one hundred thousand dollars, but will call for at least one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Your committee, while mindful of the financial questions involved, feel the wisdom and necessity of keeping in prominent view the requirements of the University and the expectations of our friends and the public. They feel that in appear- ance, plans, and construction the buildings erected for the University should be of the best quality; that in our building operations, as in our educational work, we should do well what we undertake. They are, therefore, of the opinion that it would be unwise to lessen the cost of the proposed buildings at the expense of the design or construction. Realizing, however, that it would not be prudent to commit ourselves to an expenditure so much beyond our present building resources, your committee are of the opinion that we should now erect but two buildings, to-wit: the lecture hall and one dormitory, and in view of the fact that the dormitory, as planned, is so much larger than it can be made with the one hundred thousand dollars provided by Mr. Rocke- feller, your committee deem it just and reasonable that only the north two sections, or one hundred and ninety feet of the building, be appropriated as a Divinity dormitory, and that the south section, or seventy-nine feet be reserved as a University dormitory In conclusion, your committee make the following recommendation and await your action: that blue Bedford stone be adopted as the material for the erection of the buildings, the bids showing that the difference in cost between this material and pressed brick with stone trimmings is but five or six thousand dollars for each building; also that the committee be authorized to let, and the proper officers be authorized to sign, the contracts for the erection of a lecture hall and one dormitory, at a cost, for the two buildings, not to exceed three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The report was adopted, and at the same meeting two additional important steps were taken. It was voted that the committee be