Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

Page 30 text:

Geology and Mineralogy, consisting of a large museum, lecture- room, two laboratories, a storeroom, private office, and a military museum. In the tower of the building it is proposed to put a large electric clock. For this clock our artist makes this suggestion : Suggestion for the New Tower Clock. The building when furnished and complete will cost twenty-five thousand dollars. Over the front door will be a memorial stone bearing the inscription, 1839 — Francis H. Smith — 1889, the fig- ures signifying Francis H. Smith ' s term of service as superintendent of the Institute. 14

Page 29 text:

Zhz IRew jfrancis lb. Smith Memorial Building. HERE is in course of erection on the grounds here at the Institute, a handsome academic building which is to bear the name of the Francis H. Smith Memorial Hall. This building when complete will furnish recitation rooms for all the departments of the Institute with the exception of those of Civil Engi- neering and Chemistry, which will continue to be taught in their present well-fitted and spacious quarters. It is proposed to finish this building by August 15th, 1900, in time for the session of 1900-1901. This new building completes the quadrilateral formed by the barrack and the Jackson Memorial Hall, and faces the arch of the barrack. It covers a ground space of about one hundred by seventy-five feet, and is to be three stories above the basement. It is to be built of brick with Indiana stone trimming. The basement will be used for heating and electrical apparatus. The building will be heated and ventilated by the Peck-Hammond system of hot and cold air driven fan and gas engines. In the basement there will be storage rooms for fuel. The first story will contain besides ample hall room and stairs, the various rooms for the Department of Physics, — a lecture-room for one hundred students, an office, an apparatus room, an optical room and laboratory, and lecture rooms for Latin and Military Tactics. The second story will contain one large mathematics room, accommo- dating one hundred students, and four smaller rooms for the same department ; one large room for Modern Languages, and two smaller rooms ; and there will be private offices for professors. The third story will contain all the necessary rooms for the Department of 13

Page 31 text:

Some IReminiscences of a IRew fjfcarket Cadet. [FTER the battle of New Market, the Corps of Cadets marched down the Valley and at Staunton took train for Richmond, Virginia. It was one triumphal jour- ney; at every station along the route we were met by crowds of people including many ladies and gentlemen and pretty girls, who vied with each other in shower- ing us with flowers and good things. This was par- ticularly the case at Charlottesville, Virginia. At Han- over Junction the train stopped and we were disem- barked, and drawn up in line with colors flying and band playing. Lee ' s Army was making one of its changes of front, and his ragged boys were marching along the road. Every now and then in the distance we could see the explosion of a shell in the air, which told of the proximity of the Yankees. We were informed that a fight was in prospect, and that we might be called on once more to show what a Cadet could do. The gallant Rhodes, a brilliant alumnus of the Institute, who so shortly afterwards shed his life ' s blood for his country, passed by with his staff of young and chivalrous officers. Learning of the proximity of his former comrades, he came dashing up, and made a brief, but ringing, speech of praise and congratulation to the Corps, and then passed on to engage the enemy. We were disappointed in our expectations of a scrap with the Yanks, for after a short stay, we were ordered back on our trafn and proceeded On to Richmond. When we arrived there, we were treated as heroes. There were flag presentations, speeches by old War Governor Letcher, President Davis, and others; but all this had an end, and we were once more ordered back to the V. M. I., where we soon resumed our studies (?). 15