Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/393

 A THIRD PERIOD OF BUILDING 343 enlargement began. When finally completed the plant covered an area of seventeen thousand square feet, the great smokestack being a hundred and seventy-five feet high. The cost of the plant, when completed, was four hundred and forty-five thousand dollars. For many years the University Press was housed in the tem- porary gymnasium and library building. Its quarters were dark, cramped, and wholly inadequate. If they had been called a disgrace to the University there would have been no adequate answer. As the University grew and the demands on the Press increased these quarters became more and more impossible. Once more, therefore, Mr. Rockefeller came to the relief of the sorely pressed Trustees. In the subscription of December 6, 1900, of a million and a half he designated a hundred thousand dollars for "a power house and printing-press building," it being intended to make the central lighting- and heating-plant one building, and the power plant and press another. Study of the problem made it plain that this was not the solution of it, the result being that the Heat, Light, and Power Plant was constructed as one building, and the University Press secured a building of its own. It was located on the northwest corner of Ellis Avenue and Fifty-eighth Street. In June, 1901, the University held a great celebration to mark the tenth anniversary of its founding. The final contracts for the Press Building had not at that time been let. But the Founder was to be present at the great celebration. The Press Building was one of those for which he was supplying the funds, and that the cornerstone might be laid during his visit the foundations were prepared for the ceremony. It took place on June 15 in the presence of a large attendance of spectators. The President made a brief opening statement, the secretary read a list of the articles deposited in the cornerstone, the Director of the Press, Newman Miller, laid the stone, and Professor J. Laurence Laughlin delivered an address. The building was finished and occupied October i, 1902. It was built of red pressed brick, was four stories in height, with a front on Ellis Avenue of a hundred and forty feet, and cost one hundred and five thousand, eight hundred and fifty-two dollars. It furnished classrooms for the Law School for two years and housed the General Library for ten years. It also furnished offices