http://e-archives.lib.purdue.edu/botpdf/BOTM18720813.pdfOffice of John A. Stein Lafayette Ind. Aug. 13th, 1872. At a special meeting of Board of Trustees of Purdue University assembled pursuant to a call of the Governor of Indiana, were present, this day at the office of said John A. Stein. His Excellency Conrad Baker, Governor of Indiana, and Messrs. [Messieurs] Purdue, Peirce, Nelson, Burke and Stein, Trustees. Mr. Stein the Secretary read to the Board the correspondence with President Clark of Amherst, Massachusetts declining the tender of his appointment as President of Purdue University. Mr. Peirce presented to the Board the following report of the Building Committee:[text]PURDUE UNIVERSITY.REPORT OF BUILDING COMMITTEE TO BOARD OF TRUSTEES, MADE AUGUST 13, 1872To the Trustees of Purdue University: The Building Committee report to your Board that the plenary powers given to them by the resolution of your Board, passed on the 23rd of April last, were intended to harmonize with the appointment of W.S. Clark of Amherst, Mass., to the Presidency of Purdue University, and to allow the Committee to conform its plans and operations, if they deemed it advisable, to the suggestions of Mr. Clark, whose experience it was thought, qualified him to guide, and who was expected, confidently, to accept his appointment, and to report for duty at La Fayette, in time to permit work upon the buildings to be begun during the month of May. To their astonishment they received word from Mr. Clark, in the latter part of that month, that he had been induced by influences at home, to decline the offer of the Presidency. Being satisfied that your Board desired this Committee to follow as nearly as possible, the plan of the Amherst Agricultural College in providing dormitories, boarding house and laboratory, and feeling their own inexperience and lack of knowledge, it was thought best to visit the institution in conjunction with an approved party, and make such a personal investigation as would supply the want of that information which it was expected, Mr. Clark would furnish. Acting upon the recommendation of Dr.—now  Bishop—Bowman, and other reliable gentlemen, your Committee selected and invited Mr. J.S. Hougham, Professor of Chemistry of the Kansas Agricultural College, to accompany Mr. Pierce [Peirce] of the Committee upon such a visit of inspection. Mr. Hougham accepted the invitation, and he and Mr. Pierce [Peirce] in due time visited Amherst, as also the Massachusetts School of Technology, at Boston, and the Brown University at Providence, R.I. Upon their return they made their written report to your Committee, which is herewith presented with this Report to your Board. Acting upon the suggestions of Messrs. [Messieurs] Hougham and Pierce [Peirce], your Committee concluded to proceed forthwith with the construction of a dormitory, boarding house, and laboratory, and they engaged Mr. Edwin May, of Indianapolis, to prepare plans and specifications for a dormitory, and about the same time wrote to Brown University asking it to favor them with the plans upon which the laboratory of that institution had been constructed. The latter request has been kindly responded to, and your Committee has received elaborate and elegantly drawn plans of the laboratory in question, which are herewith laid before your Board. Mr. May also has promptly furnished the plans and specifications asked of him, and the same are likewise herewith laid before you. Owing to the limited time within which your Committee has had room to act, they have been unable to have plans and specifications for a boarding house prepared, so as to submit the same to your Board at this time. Your Committee would recommend your Board that their intended plan of erecting at once, and with the least possible delay, a dormitory, boarding house and laboratory, be approved and adopted, and that the plans herewith submitted for the first and last buildings be, in their general features adopted, and that the Committee be allowed, as under the resolution of April 23d, to make such modifications in the details thereof, as may suggest themselves as appropriate, and also be allowed to mature and carry into effect plans and operations for the immediate construction of the supplementary boarding house. Respectfully submitted, M.L. Peirce, Chairman The following is a report presented to the Building Committee by a Sub-Committee appointed by them to visit the Massachusetts Agricultural College:REPORT.At the request of the Building Committee of Purdue University, the undersigned visited the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, and made such observations and notes as we supposed would be most useful to said committee at this time. THE FARM.The first view of the farm, with its extensive area, its variety of soil, its range of elevation above the river, and its diversity of adaptation, strongly suggested that it could hardly have been better chosen for its purpose. And the arrangement of the grounds with reference to forestry, agriculture, and horticulture, the style and structure of the buildings already erected, and the evident uses to which they are put, all go to convince the visitor that Massachusetts means to have an “Agricultural College.” Already the grounds have been laid off, and different parts assigned and subjected to that culture for which they are deemed best suited. And those methods of fertilization and cultivation are being employed which it is believed will do most to stimulate agriculture in the Commonwealth. But the natural condition, character, and location of every farm—whether large or small, and whether for special culture or general experiment—will dictate in a good degree its division and the assignment of its parts as well as the detail of landscape. We therefore make no suggestions concerning the extent to which Purdue University may attempt to copy the Massachusetts Agricultural College in laying out its grounds. THE BUILDINGS.Already erected appear to be nearly or quite adequate to the immediate wants of that institution. And, with some immaterial exceptions, they seemed well adapted to the objects for which they were designed. Perhaps a difference of climate would furnish sufficient reasons for modifying some of the structures, should you build after their general plan. Since at present the ready available means at your command for building are comparatively limited, we suggest that you give immediate attention to the erection of only three separate structures, namely: a Boarding House, a Dormitory, and a Chemical Laboratory. The distance of Purdue University from the city of Lafayette will in itself dictate the erection of houses for boarding and lodging. And aside from the evident necessity which exists for the houses just named, we submit that the convenience and general advantage both of students and teachers will be promoted by having the students, in a measure, isolated from the society of the city and of the surrounding community. The Boarding House of the Massachusetts Agricultural College is detached from all the other buildings, which we think is eminently desirable. It can now accommodate one hundred persons. By addition which can at any time be easily and economically made, it may furnish board for two hundred. We commend its general plan, which is herewith submitted, to your favorable consideration. Some modifications in its details will probably increase its convenience and usefulness for this locality. The Dormitory belonging to the same institution is much esteemed by those best acquainted with it. It is fifty by one hundred feet, is four stories high, is divided into thirty-two suits of rooms, and will accommodate eighty students with good apartments for studying and sleeping. We, however, submit that if you erect a Dormitory on this plan, it will be an improvement to make all the principle partition walls of brick instead of frame-work, as in the original, since this would cost little, if any, more, and would add both to its safety and durability. We also submit that the stories of the Dormitory should be, in this climate, at least ten feet high in the clear. The third building, which it seems to us desirable that you begin to erect now, is a Chemical Laboratory. This very important part of every modern college has but too frequently to accept such accommodations as it can find in apartments illy adapted to its wants. Indeed an active chemical laboratory does not seek neighborship for itself, and its close proximity is usually considered an infliction upon the other departments of a College. Offensive and poisonous gases, and the casualties which sometimes endanger even the most careful and skillful, strongly urge that this department should have a building of its own. Every efficient chemical laboratory should possess facilities for the analysis of minerals, soils, plants and manures; and for the assaying of the metals. Many of the facilities requisite for these purposes should be provided for in the erection of the building—especially the furnaces, flues, and the means of ventilation and of