Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 41

25, 1867. The trustees met to pay him proper tribute, and in his honor named the new building Boynton Hall.

Concurrently with the erection of Boynton Hall there was being built adjacent to it the Washburn Machine Shop. This was designed and constructed entirely under the supervision of Ichabod Washburn, and the trustees were thus relieved of all responsibility for it. The architects were Elbridge Boyden & Son, who had been architects of Mechanics Hall, and who were second in the competition for the Boynton Hall plans. The building was of pressed brick, attractively ornamented in the style of the day, with a tower that possessed architectural lines that were equal in interest to those of the main building. It was considered advantageous to have this building differ radically from Boynton Hall, in order to indicate a different origin and use.

The main shop unit was 102 feet by 44 feet in plan, three stories high. An ell, 65 by 25 feet, at the rear of the north end of the building enclosed the engine and boiler room and the blacksmith shop. This wing contained two 20 H.P. boilers built from plans of Charles H. Morgan, and a 20 H.P. Corliss steam engine, one-half the cost of which was contributed by George H. Corliss. The main building was equipped with iron-working and wood-working machinery that was the best then available. The cost of the shop building to Mr. Washburn was between $12,000 and $15,000.

Most of the trustees were more at home with problems of finance, building and equipment than with the planning of a program of study. They showed their good judgment, however, by placing this matter in the hands of Stephen Salisbury, Seth Sweetser, Emory Washburn and Dr. Hill, the four members whose contacts with education had been most intimate.

The first report of this committee, in October, 1865, was sufficiently comprehensive to serve as a foundation for instruction to be given in the opening years; they wisely left details to be developed by the faculty. This report is worthy to be recorded.

webmaster@wpi.edu

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