Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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1 88 1, when the advances of the last few prosperous years were given a great set-back by the total destruction of the main building, which was burned September 25, 1881, with its valuable library, museum and collections of teaching appliances. This calamity, discouraging as it was, seemed to inspire new interest in Swarth- more, and in a day or two the liberal managers and patriotic alumni and alumnae had recovered from the shock and were already devising ways and means to restore the great loss. So successful were their efforts that work was begun on a new and improved building within a short time and over a quarter of a mil- lion dollars Avere raised for its needs. During the construction of the new building the classes were held in the Chestnut Grove and Gayley Houses, at Media, and many and varied are the stories told by those w ho went through that memorable session. The restored college building, with the new scientific building, was ready for occupancy in the Fall of 1882, and the opening took place on the anniversary of the fire. Although the number of students in the college was temporarily reduced by the general discouragement following this great reverse, the progress since that time has been very rapid and all effects of the misfortune have long since ceased to be felt. The last few years have been prosperous in a measure beyond the anticipation of the founders of the college, and the great additions to the endowment, the building and equip- ment of the observatory, and other substantial acquisitions which have come within the recollection of those now in college, are encouraging to the utmost. The past year, which has been signalized by the resignation of Dr. Magill, who had guided the affairs of the college through two decades of its successful career, the election of our popular Pro- fessor Appleton to the vacant presidency, and his subsequent de- cision to decline the honor, has been a most eventful one, and with the great step made in the abolition of the Preparatory School, will form a convenient starting place for the historians of future years.