UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS.

In October, 1793, the corporation voted "that early in the next summer a house shall be built on the college square for the use of the university." This building was intended for the residence of the president. It was begun in 1794 and nearly completed in 1795, but was not finished so as to be occupied until 1799. It was situated on the east side of the college park, a little to the south and west of the present museum building. It was of wood, 48 by 32 feet, two stories high, with hipped roof. After serving its original purpose for many years, in process of time this building became unfit for the residence of the president and degenerated into a tenement house. It was commonly known, forty years ago, as the "Old Yellow House," and among the students, owing to the number and variety of its occupants, as the "House of the Seven Nations." One still cold night in the winter of 1844 it was burned to the ground-by a stroke of lightning, as was said by the students. The faculty, however, had a different theory of the matter.

The original college edifice proper was erected in 1801. In October, 1799, the citizens of Burlington offered to the corporation a special subscription of $2,300 to aid in the erection of this building. and in the procuring of books and apparatus, and contracts for the building were made the next year. The structure occupied the same site as the present edifice, and was of brick, 160 feet long, 75 feet wide in the center and 45 in the wings, and four stories in height. It had a hall in each story running the entire length of the building, and contained a chapel, 7 public rooms, and 45 rooms for students. This building was destroyed on the 24th of May, 1824, by an accidental fire, said to have been caused by sparks falling upon the roof from one of the chimneys. The sparks were afterwards ascertained to have come from some shavings which a student had set on fire in his stove on the ground floor. The "different college buildings" were stated, by the Vermont Sentinel, in July, 1805, to have cost thus far $24,391; but this must be too low a figure, as Thompson gives the cost of the original main building alone at about $35,000, "the greater part of which was contributed in Burlington and vicinity." It appears also that the funds for building the original president's house came mainly from Burlington.

The new plan embraced 3 buildings, the north and south ones each three stories high and 75 feet long by 36 feet wide, while the middle one was 86 feet long, with a projection in front and rear, and was designed for administrative purposes. It contained the chapel, library, museum, and lecture rooms, besides two rooms which were assigned to the two rival debating societies, the "Phi Sigma Nu" and “University Institute," each with its separate room for a library. The north and south college buildings were finished in the course of

1825-26, and cost about $10,000, "nearly all subscribed by inhabitants of Burlington and vicinity." The middle college was erected and nearly completed in 1829, and cost about $9,000. The dome by which it was surmounted, and which for more than fifty years served as a beacon for the wide region of country between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks, was designed, and the working plans therefor executed, by the late Prof. George W. Benedict.

The north and south college buildings were fitted for dormitories. Each was built in two divisions, separated by partition walls. There were no halls lengthwise of any of the buildings, and it was impossible to pass from one division to another or to the center building without going out of doors. All the buildings were of brick and covered originally with tin, which was subsequently, about thirty years ago, replaced with Welsh slate. At this time the buildings, which were originally separated by spaces of some 7 feet, were connected so as to form a continuous wall, and the small rooms thus gained were used in various ways. The total length of the old building amounted, according to these figures, to 250 feet.

ment.

In the olden time there were recitation rooms on the lower floor of south college. Soon after Mr. Angell assumed the presidency (in 1866) the lower story of the north college was taken for the general laboratory, lecture, assaying rooms, and other uses of the chemical departThe chapel was refitted and refurnished somewhere about 1860. In 1861, or the earlier part of 1862, the south college was thoroughly repaired, and the interior changed so as to furnish convenient suites of rooms for the use of students. The students' rooms in the north college were remodeled after a similar plan two or three years later. In 1862, also, the present museum building, 40 by 60 feet, was erected. This was originally but two stories high, and owed its existence mainly to the efforts of President Pease and Professor Clark. The third story was added in 1864 at the expense of Hon. Trenor W. Park, of Bennington, for the accomodation of the art gallery. What has been known to later generations of students as the "old president's house," that occupied by Professor Petty, is believed on good authority to have been standing in 1808. By whom or when it was built we have not been able to ascertain. It did not belong originally to the university. C. P. Van Ness is said to have lived in it in 1809, and for many years after that date to have owned and occupied it; but President Haskel is affirmed to have made it his residence after his resignation of the pastorate of the First Church (in 1822), and President Marsh lived and died in it (1826-1842). It was familiarly known in distinction from the first president's mansion-"the old yellow house"-as the "white house." Not long after the death of Dr. Marsh it became a college boarding house, and for some years gathered more students about its long tables than any other 3 or 4 houses in the village.

President Marsh's office, a one-story wooden building, used to stand near the street line to the southwest of the house, and we believe is still preserved as a part of the cottage now occupied by the college janitor.

The president's mansion, now occupied by President Buckham, was built for President Angell in 1869. It was erected during the days of inflated currency, when it took a good deal of money to buy a very little of any other commodity, and cost some $14,000 raised by subscription in Burlington.

In 1882-83, by the liberality of Mr. John P. Howard, what is known to the present generation as the old college building was thoroughly remodeled and reconstructed at an expense of nearly $50,000. Greater height was given to each story, and the ends and center brought forward by projections, giving a depth at the center of 60 feet, and at the ends of 42 feet.

The center of the building rises a story higher than the rest and is surmounted by a belfry and spire, the gilded finial of which is 150 feet from the ground. The tip of the center gable is 93 feet from the ground. Between the large projections and gables are two smaller ones, in which are the two front entrances.

As to interior arrangement, the chapel occupies the same position as in the old college building. It is 65 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 23 feet high. Under the chapel is the drill room, over it 2 commodious lecture rooms. To the south and north of the central portion are 6 lecture rooms, each 33 by 25 feet, with large lobbies attached, and 2 smaller recitation rooms, besides rooms for apparatus, chemical stores, waiting room, Y. M. C. A. room, etc. At the north end is the chemical laboratory; over that, the rest of this end and the whole of the south end are devoted to dormitories. The fourth story affords an additional number of dormitories.

The first lectures in the medical department were to mixed classes of ladies and gentlemen at the old "Pearl Street House," not the structure at present occupied by the "St. Joseph's College," but one which was burned on the same site.

The old medical-college building at the south end of the park was erected in 1829, and was originally a plain brick structure of two stories. During the suspension of the medical department from 1830 to 1853, the laboratory and lecture room in this building were used by the professor of chemistry and natural philosophy for the lectures on chemistry and physiology in the academical course. In 1859, at an expense of some $4,000, the medical building was thoroughly overhauled, and greatly enlarged by an extension to the rear and by the addition of another story to afford room for an enlarged amphitheater, etc. In 1880 the lecture rooms were again enlarged, this time to the utmost extent the building would admit of, and a new chemical labo