Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/400

 348 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO eating was in order took place. It was one of the chief centers of the social life of the University. In the same way the Reynolds Club House became the headquarters of the social life of Univer- sity men. Containing a bowling-alley, a billiard room, a reading- room, a library, a theater, numerous committee rooms, and every other convenience, beautifully finished and beautifully furnished, it provided the men of the University with facilities for making University life socially profitable and enjoyable. They were quick to realize this, and at the beginning of the Autumn Quarter of 1903 organized the Reynolds Club which took over the Club House and thenceforth filled a great place in University life. Mandel Assembly Hall extended south from the Reynolds Club House along University Avenue. Its seating capacity was a little over a thousand. In it were held orchestra concerts, dramatic performances, lectures, educational conferences, oratorical con- tests, intercollegiate debates, athletic mass meetings, daily chapel assemblies, Sunday preaching services, the University Convoca- tions, and other assemblies almost without number. Its value to the growing University was all that the President anticipated, but at the end of the first quarter-century a statement made by him at the laying of the cornerstone regarding the old chapel in Cobb Hall could have been repeated, and President Judson might have said with truth, "Mandel Assembly Hall will not seat one-third of the students." Remaining most useful for all ordinary demands on it, for great occasions it was outgrown, and the University waited for the Chapel provided for in the Founder's last gift, which would be commodious and beautiful, capable of meeting the religious and other needs of the growing University. But these were not the only buildings of these years. At the Thirty-fifth Convocation held on September 18, 1900, the Presi- dent made known the plans for the University gymnasium, saying: It gives me pleasure to announce that a friend of the University .... will contribute the sum of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for the erection of the gymnasium A father will erect this building, which shall be dedicated to the work of the physical upbuilding of young men, in memory of his son taken suddenly from life in the midst of a splendid and vigorous young manhood. The young man was himself a college student and intensely interested in the physical and athletic side of college life. It is in