Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 81.djvu/524

518 State of New York, came from England to preside and to deliver one of the addresses.

The University of the State of New York was created to supervise colleges and academies by the legislature in 1784, at its first session after the peace, and the Department of Education was created in 1812 to supervise the state system of common schools. In both respects New York led the other states and it may be all countries. The two departments were united by law in 1904, and they now have an impressive building to represent their work. The need of such a building was urged by the commissioner of education in 1905 and recommended by the regents, and in 1906 the legislature appropriated some four million dollars for the building and its site. As a result of an elaborate architectural competition, in which sixty-three designs were submitted, the plans of Messrs. Palmer and Hornbostel were accepted, and the building shown in the accompanying illustrations has now been erected.

The facade consists of a great colonnade of many Corinthian columns, behind which is a series of semi-circular openings allowing a large window area. The end facades are modifications of the front, the columnar treatment being carried across the ends. The front and end facades of the building are of white marble and terra cotta on a dark granite base. The basement contains rooms for service of all kinds, the lower part of the auditorium and the lower floors of the great book stack of the library. The first floor contains rooms for the regents and the commissioner of education with other offices, including those for the library division and state examination board. The second floor contains reading rooms opening on the stack room, with a capacity of two million volumes. The third floor contains offices and work rooms for the examination division and extension division and the library school, and the upper part of the library. The fourth floor is devoted entirely to the state museum and contains its collections in geology, mineralogy, paleontology,