Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/489

 LATER BUILDINGS OF THE FIRST QUARTER-CENTURY 429 available space for research work had been increased at least three- fold. The Ryerson Annex was dedicated in connection with the exercises of the December, 1913, Convocation, though it was finished and occupied before that date. The building was opened for inspection on the evening of December 19 during the Convo- cation reception and also on the morning of Convocation Day. The many visitors found much to excite their interest and wonder in the new equipment. Brief addresses were made by President Judson, Professor Michelson, Head of the Department of Physics, and Mr. Ryerson, the donor of the building. The Athletic Field of the University, comprising the two blocks north of Fifty-seventh Street and between Ellis and University avenues, was, for many years, inclosed by a board fence twelve or fourteen feet in height. The fence was a temporary makeshift, never an ornament, and as the years passed and it began to fall to pieces and be patched up, it became an eyesore to the neighbor- hood and a growing humiliation to the University. The bleachers, long and lofty on both sides of the field, were of timber construc- tion. They accommodated for the great football games some fifteen thousand spectators. But they too were unsightly and so decayed that, with the lapse of years, they needed annually more and more extensive repairs. The time came when the city authori- ties condemned parts of them, and the Trustees themselves felt that both bleachers and fence must be replaced by structures that would be not only ornamental but enduring. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held June 4, 1912, the following important action was taken: The President was authorized to announce at the approaching Convo- cation the intention of the University to begin within two years: 1. The building of a permanent wall around Marshall Field and of per- manent grandstands. 2. The erection of a building for Geology and Geography. 3. The erection of a Woman's Gymnasium. 4. The erection of a building for the Classical Departments. This action was taken on the urgent recommendation of Presi- dent Judson who had come to feel that all the proposed structures were imperatively required. It was supposed that to carry out