Union College - Garnet Yearbook (Schenectady, NY)

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THE GARNET. 25 appear to the stranger as a bold departure from established precedent. But the friends of the college justify this action by pointing to the marked improvements since inaugurated ; the new building- erected, the noble endowment funds since received and the increasing numbers in attendance, especially in the lower classes ; and upon these they base their expectations of the future, and look forward with con¬ fidence to a new and vigorous growth of the college, with increasing means and a wider field for usefulness. The principal buildings of Union College are North Col- |j lege and South College, six hundred feet apart, and each with a colonnade facing inward ; a Memorial Hall midway between, but standing back three hundred feet from the frontline; a gymnasium in the rear of South College; a President’s House and three other dwellings on the line with the main college buildings, and a professor’s residence at some distance east of the principal group of buildings. The dlans of North and South Colleges are alike except as to the position of the colonnades, and when viewed in front each appears as a pair of large three-story dwellings, connected by a four-story building, the latter faced with pilasters to the whole height and arches extending up to in¬ clude the first and second stories. Each college building is 200 by 40 feet on the ground. The end portions are used as residences for professors and the central part as dormit¬ ories for students. This central portion has three separate entrances front and rear, with lour rooms on each floor, making, originally, forty-eight rooms in each college. With¬ in the past few years a renovation of the interior has been undertaken, and rooms in some cases connected for greater convenience, so as to appear more cheerful and home-like. The colonnades are each 250 feet in length by 25 in breadth, and terminate in square-roofed buildings one story higher. These buildings are each 80 by 50 feet on the ground. The North Colonnade and building are used for

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24 THE GARNET. grounds just north of the proposed site, and in the rear al- ternating fields and groves extended several miles eastward to the Hudson. A tract of some two hundred and fifty acres was secured and new buildings begun upon plans drawn by M. Ramee, a French engineer then eminent in the country, and for a time employed by the National Government in planning fortifications and public works. Construction was begun on College Hill in 1812, and the buildings were first occupied in 1814. To provide means for these improvements Dr. Nott succeeded in obtaining another grant from the State j of $200,000. Although prominence is given to the personal influence of its president, during many years of prosperity, justice re¬ quires us to record the fact, which ' all the graduates will in¬ dorse, that a large measure of gratitude is due from them to the other members of the faculty for their talent, fidelity and ability in conducting the interests more especially con- f fided to their care. But advancing age brings its infirmities ; and in 1852 the Rev. Laurens P. Hickok, D.D., was called from the Au¬ burn Theological Seminary to serve as vice-president, and upon him gradually devolved the cares of the presidency, although they were not actually conferred in name until af¬ ter the death of Dr. Nott in 1866. On the retirement of Dr. Hickok, the Rev. Charles A. Aiken, D.D.. of Dartmouth College, was chosen president, and he filled the duties with acceptance until 1871, when, for domestic reasons, involving the health of a member of his family, he resigned to seek a less rigorous climate ; and in the selection of a successor the choice fell upon the Rev. 1 Eliphalet Nott Potter, D.D., a grandson of Dr. Nott, and son of Bishop Alonzo Potter. | This selection of a man at an age much younger than that at which college presidents are usually chosen, might

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26 THE GARNET. chemical and philosophical apparatus and lecture-rooms, the chemical laboratory and cabinets of the engineering depart¬ ment. Those on the south are used for chapel, library, cabinet, office and recitation-rooms. A Gymnasium was built in 1874 at the cost of prominent Alumni of Albany and Troy. The building is 80 by 40 feet on the ground and two stories in height. It is large and well equipped and is under the control of a professional gymnast. A new building known as Washburn Hall, to be devoted to the purpose of library and recitation rooms, has just been completed in the rear of Memorial Hall. The college grounds embrace about one hundred acres, including the campus, gardens and grounds properly be¬ longing to the college and essential for its use, besides some one hundred acres of woodlands and fields adjoining. THE JACKSON GARDEN. During the residence of Prof. Thomas Macauley, more than fifty years ago. a beginning was made in the improve¬ ment of a garden north of North College. The work was, however, scarcely more than a beginning until Prof. Isaac W. Jackson became a resident of the adjoining dwelling in 1831, when a series of improvements were begun, which, aided by a small annual grant from the trustees, have grad¬ ually transformed a wild ravine and tangled woodland’into a charming ramble and pleasant retreat. The grounds em¬ brace some twelve acres, and combine many attractions of sylvan solitude and floral beauty.