Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 174

It has been the home of the three succeeding presidents. This house was but a small part of the construction program on which the Institute was engaged when Dr. Mendenhall arrived. The Engineering Laboratories, the Power House, and the Hydraulics Laboratory were all nearing completion, and the $100,000 donated by the Massachusetts Lesislature was rapidly being converted into stone, brick, and timber. Preliminary plans for these buildings were made by Professors Alden, White, and others, and put into final form by the Institute architects, Earle & Fisher. Ten contractors submitted bids varying from $40,000 to $48,000 for construction of the laboratories and power house, but the Trustees decided to do the work on a cost-plus-percentage basis. It cost them about $46,000 and an additional $26,600 for equipment.

The new laboratories were rated among the best in the East. The four-story building, 116 feet on West Street and 53 feet deep, conformed fairly well with the architecture of the Washburn Shops and Salisbury Laboratories, and was equally severe. The first two floors were left undivided; the third floor contained a large lecture hall, library, and recitation rooms; the fourth two large drawing rooms, a machine design room, and a model room. These facilities relieved the overcrowded Salisbury Laboratories and made recitation rooms in Boynton Hall available for other subjects. The general library in Boynton Hall was also expanded to include the rooms later to be used by the Registrar and the Dean.

The Power House was an equally valuable addition to the plant. It was specially designed to provide space for boilers and engines to be used both for power generation and student experiments. The building was 76 by 57 feet. There were two rooms at the north end, one for the boilers, the other for gas producer equipment. The stack, 8 feet in diameter at the base and 90 feet high, provided another campus landmark. The space between the power house and laboratories was excavated for coal, ash and storage vaults, and a tunnel was built to the Washburn Shops.

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