Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/389

 A THIRD PERIOD OF BUILDING 341 ance, it possessed large significance, for it was the first building of the School of Education, which was destined to fill so important a place in the history of the University. It came to be known as Ellis Hall, being located on the avenue known by that name at the corner of Fifty-eighth Street, directly south of and across the street from the Press Building. The Chicago Institute had just become the School of Education of the University. It had no building of its own, and a temporary home for it was needed without delay. On July 30, 1901, the Trustees authorized the erection of a temporary building. On August 9 the contracts were let, and on October i it was occupied by the new school. The building was a one-story structure of red brick, having a flat roof, and did not add to the architectural beauty of the quadrangles. But it was large and commodious, covering twenty thousand square feet and having thirty large rooms. It cost twenty-five thousand dollars. Here the School of Education, or, to speak exactly, the College for Teachers of that School, continued its work for nearly three years, when, on the adoption of the policy of segregation, so-called, the men of the Junior Colleges fell heir to Ellis Hall, and continued to occupy it at the close of the first quarter-century. Indeed it served more than one good purpose. The Junior College Deans had offices in it. For several years it furnished accommo- dations for the editors of the University of Chicago Magazine and the Daily Maroon. The largest room served for several years as a storeroom for books waiting to be catalogued and in 1915 was assigned to the University Young Men's Christian Association as an assembly room. And thus in many ways, though not beautiful, Ellis Hall served its generation. Ellis Hall has been mentioned first, because it was the first of the new buildings constructed. Many others of this new period were, however, in contemplation long before there had been any thought of Ellis. The first two of them were given to the University by Mr. Rockefeller, and the first of the two was the Heat, Light, and Power Plant. For lack of such a plant the University, during its earlier years, suffered great inconvenience. Temporary plants were constructed, the first being in the basement of Cobb Hall. But the rapid expansion of the institution, the multiplication of