Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 67

advantage of the youth of Worcester county will be secured by the companionship and competition of scholars from other parts of the state and country."

A year later Mr. Salisbury gave another tract of land, containing nearly three acres, bounded by the tract previously given, West St., and Salisbury St. This gave the Institute possession of the entire block except the Hill estate at the corner of Boynton and Salisbury streets, a trapezoidal area of about two and a half acres. This tract was foreign territory until 1906, when it was purchased by a group of alumni and donated to the Institute.

In the same instrument of September 23, 1870, in which Mr. Salisbury announced his third gift of land, he also provided the sum of fifty thousand dollars as an addition to the instruction fund. He stipulated that this should be accrued to October 1, 1873, and recommended that part of the income be used "to provide evening instruction for young persons whose occupations do not permit them to receive this advantage in the day." This was a plan very close to the heart of Principal Thompson, and he was the pioneer in this country in the teaching of evening classes in drawing. Such a class in 1870-71, conducted in Boynton Hall in cooperation with the Worcester School Board, was attended by more than 140 mechanics and school teachers, and a much larger number enrolled the following year. Delegations came from seven New England cities to learn the methods of conducting these classes and to secure teachers for similar classes. Five years later, Principal Thompson expressed his exasperation concerning undue credit that had been given to the Englishman, Walter Smith, who introduced drawing in America by means of textbooks. "Our professors teach," he wrote, "that is their business. Books may serve a good purpose in technological schools where the professors do not teach, but here they have no place except as sources of hints and information to the teachers. " Thompson later tried to secure funds from local men for the purpose of expanding the scope of evening

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