The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-30
Her Doors Will Open
Tomorrow.
CHANGES IN De TAIL.
Tyro Housekeepers Have
Every Facility There.

After years of abandonment the old
Dread institute will tomorrow open its
doors again.
Between the hours of three and five
and eight and ten, the big building
which is henceforth to be the home of
what was once the New Era Cooking
school, will be thrown open for inspec-
ton. Tomorrow Dread institute will
once again be dedicated to purposes of
instruction.
The old gray walls irown down upon
the beholder as coldly and as dismal
ly as ever. It's towers and turrets still
suggest donjon keeps, vaults and secret
passageways. All the medievalism of
the exterior remains unchanged. But
inside a wonderful transformation has
been wrought. Everything is remod-
elled, rebuilt, renewed. Fresh paint
varnish, tapestries, drapings, hand
some furniture give everywhere an as
pect of newness
The young ladies who a score of years
ago received the last touches to their
education within those walls no doubt
fancied themselves familiar with every
nook and Granny of the building. To-
day they would be lost if they happened
TO stray inside the main portal In max
ing his alterations, President H. D.
Perky has had two objects in view
first, to preserve the exterior of the
building with its grim, castellated walls
IN all its original picturesqueness sec
ond, to make every change in the in
ternal arrangements needful in order
TO make the furnishings and appoint
ments in accordance with the most ad-
Vanced and modern ideas of art. He
has succeeded admirably in both his
endeavors. The interior completely
gives the lie to the exterior, yet in a
way both harmonic. The exterior is
picturesque. The interior is homelike
and beautiful.
Dread institute is literally "house
founded upon a rock" The first obsta-
Gle Mr.. Perky had to overcome in max
ing his improvements was to blast out
100 tons of that material. Previously
the basement had never been fully
completed, the entire northern half had
to be cut out of the rock. The result
is large lecture hall, which can be
used both for a dining room and
place to hold graduation exercises and
entertainments. Opening into this is
the kitchen, which occupies all the
ground floor of the north tower. The
Kitchen is circular in form with q di-
ameter of forty feet. f;ere the meals
for the whole establishment will be
prepared. The equipment of ranges.
sinks, dressers and lockers would glad
den the heart of any housewife.
In the other tower is the practice
kitchen. 1t is here that the young
tyros at housekeeping will make their
maiden efforts at making buns and
biscuits. 1t is merely n practice kitch-
en- and it is not intended that anything
therein concocted shall oe eaten. at
least not at first. But there is every
facility offered to facilitate the prac-
tice which makes perfect Twenty-Five
electric ovens are arranged in a circle
and around these the fair beginners
Will learn the first dark secrets of
cookery.
In the centre is basin Of water
from which spouts an electric fountain
the only one in Worcester-Whose
single jet will swiftly take upon itself
all the hues of the rainbow. Around
the wall are a number of regulation
kitchen ranges, while by way of con-
trast to new-fangled stoves and ranges.
is an old fashioned kettle depended
from crane hung IN a spacious fire
place of pressed brick.
North of the practice kitchen are
store rooms and a couple of lecture
rooms. Farther back are the engine
and dynamo rooms, where a 400 volt
dynamo supplies the building with light.
Here also is the steam heater.
On the floor above are the parlors
and offices, which are tastefully and
even lavishly furnished and decorated,
the principals laboratory and in the
north tower, the principals apart
ments. The centre of the big space in
the tower is partitioned off into the
cosiest little round room imaginable.
from which are cut off other rooms in
segments. They are homelike and at
tractive in spite of their unusual shape.
The remaining space on this floor is
taken up with bedrooms for the stu
dents, each of which is handsomely
furnished
The third floor is similar to the sec
ond, except that there are more bed
rooms. President Perky's rooms are in
the north tower. In the south tower
is the chemical laboratory
Last but not least, comes the root
garden. The fiat covering of the build
ing had been boarded over like the
promenade deck of a steamer, afford
ing a delightful walk, and one of the
finest Views in Worcester. When warm