Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Seventy Years

in wire goods and textile industries, prominent in State and National politics. Lincoln N. Kinnicutt, Worcester banker and brother of Prof. Leonard P. Kinnicutt, was chosen to fill Senator Hoar's place, and was immediately elected treasurer to succeed Mr. Washburn. The meeting place of the Board was changed from the Antiquarian Society library to Mr. Washburn's office, which in 1906 was headquarters of his campaign for a seat in the 59th Congress.

The financial prospects of the reorganized Board were somewhat brighter than they had been the previous year, when Dr. Engler had submitted to them a fall report covering needs for equipment, expansion of plant, and increases in faculty salaries. At that time they had reluctantly approved the expenditure of $19,000 that he requested for changes in heating and power equipment, including the installation of new vertical boilers. His plea for enlargement of the Electrical Engineering facilities, at an estimated cost of $150,000, had seemed visionary then, but when Stephen Salisbury's legacy was announced, the trustees showed little hesitation in deciding how it would be used. Within two weeks after the will was published, Dr. Engler was instructed to prepare plans for an Electrical Engineering building.

For four years, Prof. H. B. Smith, as able a tactician as he was an engineer, had been pressing the needs of his department upon President Engler, who had faithfully relayed them to the Trustees. Preliminary plans for the building had been made long in advance, and Professor Smith was ambitious to have it excel the electrical facilities of any other college. On the basis of preliminary estimates, the trustees authorized the executive committee to expend not over $180,000 for the building and attendant changes in the Salisbury Laboratories, and to pledge securities to secure a loan for immediate construction.

Plans prepared by a Boston firm of architects placed the proposed structure at the comer of West and Salisbury

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