Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/493

 LATER BUILDINGS OF THE FIRST QUARTER-CENTURY 431 Bedford stone of the University buildings. It was as nearly fire- proof as modern methods could make it. In his annual report for 1912-13 the Counsel and Business Manager, Wallace Heckman, said: It has a seating capacity of a trifle under eight thousand spectators The general direction of the grandstand is north and south, and it extends along one entire side of the field with a total length of four hundred and eighty- two feet and four inches. It is forty-two feet, four inches high from the floor level to the top promenade, and at either end is a large, round, crenellated tower in keeping with the military aspect of the old feudal castles. The highest point on the towers is fifty-seven feet above the ground. The width east and west is ninety-nine feet, four inches. Generous provision in the way of stair- ways was made to such an extent that the spectators can leave their seats and get down on the lower levels in three or four minutes. The first or ground floor has a corridor thirteen feet, five inches wide running the entire length of the Stand. West of the corridor there were quarters for the contending teams, and handball courts, squash courts, and racquet courts, and a room for indoor golf. There was a spacious corridor on the second floor, which, through great window openings overlooked Ellis Avenue, and at the top of the stand an open-air promenade between the highest row of seats and the outer wall, interrupted in the center by a covered pavilion under the shelter of which the reporters made their notes of the games. The entire field was surrounded by a reinforced concrete wall varying from fourteen to seventeen feet high as the grade of the streets required and ten inches thick, connecting with the Frank Dickinson Bartlett Gymnasium. The wall was of the same type as the stand and about half a mile in length. There were numer- ous gates for entrance and exit. The entrance opposite Hull Court on Fifty-seventh Street had two round, flanking towers between which was a large gate to be used for the entrance of the student body, with a small gate on either side. These gates were the gift of the Class of 1912 as the inscription over the central one records. Harold F. McCormick contributed the racquet courts at an expense of above ten thousand dollars. A gift of five thousand dollars from Frederick H. Rawson made possible the completion of the squash courts. By an additional contribution of nineteen