Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 257

you here, from year to year, I may see that you are doing the work of the world as I think you ought to do *it."

Another fund, to which some sentiment was attached, increased slightly in 1915. Gifts to the L. P. Kinnicutt loan fund, aggregating $520, were made by Mrs. Kinnicutt, L. P. Kinnicutt and George I. Alden, which with interest on loans, built the fund to about $1,500. An additional loan fund was established that year when Mrs. M. P. Higgins turned over to the Institute notes for loans that she had made to former students. These and gifts from a few individuals were the nucleus of the Institute loan fund.

Professor Alden continued to show his interest in numerous ways, particularly in connection with the hydraulics laboratory at Chaffins, which had been his conception in 1894. He had given funds for the erection of a new low-head laboratory and had followed with interest experiments carried on there. It was fitting that in May, 1915, the Trustees should have voted to name this plant the Alden Hydraulic Laboratory. Later that year, T. Edward Wilder, '74, donated an additional parcel of land adjoining the property.

The condition imposed by the State grant of 1912, that the Institute must increase its property holdings by $350,000 within five years in order to secure the annual appropriation from 1917 to 1922, was fulfilled in October, 1915. At that time Dr. Gage presented to Charles G. Washburn a detailed statement of additional funds and real estate that had been acquired, amounting to more than $300,000. Mr. Washburn immediately made good his pledge of $50,000, designating it the Charles Francis Washburn fund, a memorial to his father, and giving permission for its use as a building fund if at any time the Trustees should wish to expend it for that purpose.

The Institute debt, represented by notes due the bank, reached a high level of $58,000 in 1914. By operating economies during the succeeding two years, this indebtedness was reduced to $40,000. In the process of changing over the

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