Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/276

 240 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO as the Ryerson Physical Laboratory. It is intended that the Laboratory and its equipment shall be for work and not for exhibition purposes If the Laboratory were the only thing Mr. Ryerson had given the Uni- versity, he would have placed us under obligations from which we could never have released ourselves; but he has given us much more not only an addi- tional sum of money amounting to nearly $150,000, but also time and thought, advice and direction which no money could have purchased. For all this I wish, at this time, from the bottom of my heart to thank him. No man can estimate what he has done for the University, what he has been to the Uni- versity Although that is another story, it must be added here, that sixteen years later, on July 26, 1910, Mr. Ryerson informed the Trustees that "on account of the progress of the science of physics, and because it was evident that the demands upon the laboratory space will soon exceed its capacity," he proposed to make improve- ments in the building and in its equipment, and to erect and equip an annex. All this was done at an expense to Mr. Ryerson of about two hundred thousand dollars, giving the University an ideal pro- vision for the Department of Physics. From the beginning Mr. Ryerson took a deep and intelligent personal interest in the remark- able research work of the department, and whenever funds were needed beyond the provision the University was able to make, was accustomed to send his check to the treasury for five thousand dollars, the money to be expended for the department. In building the annex, and at the same time adding very largely to the equip- ment of the department with the most recent apparatus, Mr. Ryerson was entirely self-moved, impelled only by his knowledge of the needs of the department. One more building belongs to this earlier period. For a number of years the President lived in a rented house on Blackstone (then Washington) Avenue. It was three-quarters of a mile from the University, and the Trustees felt that the President should have a permanent home on the grounds of the University. They there- fore purchased lots on the northeast corner of University Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, and in 1895 built the President's House at a cost of forty thousand dollars, from designs of Henry Ives Cobb. At the time of its completion, less than four years had passed since the turning of the first furrow for the foundations of the