Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 131

OF LABORATORIES AND SHOPS

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SINCE the school was incorporated in 1865 great advances have been made in Physics, Chemistry and Mechanics, so that accommodations that answered the purposes of instruction at the beginning are now entirely inadequate. The school is suffering for the want of Laboratories for these branches of industrial training. I am anxious to assist in meeting this pressing need of the school by placing at the disposal of the Trustees the sum of One Hundred Thousand Dollars, to be expended by them in the erection of a suitable building to contain Laboratories for Mechanical, Physical and Chemical Science."

Stephen Salisbury's letter of gift was written April 20, 1887. Timely as it was generous, it was greeted with enthusiasm and gratitude. At last the crowded condition of Boynton Hall was to be relieved and the Institute was to have suitable laboratory space for the first time in its history.

A building committee, Salisbury, Rice, Whitcomb and Morgan, immediately went to work on plans. Professors Alden, Kimball and Kinnicutt were consulted in regard to space requirements, and the latter two were sent on an inspection trip to new laboratories at Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Lehigh, Harvard and M. I. T. The general plan was submitted to the trustees in June, approved, and put into effect. Again

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999