The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-19
YALE'S ANCIENT BUILDINGS
WHILE TALE VISITORS WILL AD-
 MIRE THE NEW BUILDINGS,
Yet the Old Yet Left yytII Greatly Infer est Mnny.-such as "Old South MiddIe', Solitary Amid Modern Grandeur, and Other ReJics

Visitors thronging to New Haven
 during Bicentennial will, no doubt, find
 much to delight them in the new build
 ings, but here and there one with an
 interest in relics will miss such evil
 dences of antiquity as have now quite
 passed away. South Middle, standing i solitary amid the modern grandeur,
 will be his only consolation. But as
 one runs back over the history of the ] college he finds that it could hardly be | otherwise. In fact the one relic seems
 to have been the only architectural
 achievement in the early days worth
 saving.
 1 The first college building in New Ha-
 ven, though an elaborate affair, had before it was sixty years old, so fallen into decay that repair was out of the question: It had played an important part in the early years. While Say
 brook, Hartford and New Haven, in
 their contest for possession of the fee
 ble school, were threatening it with outright extinction, New Haveners shreWdly reported to an argument
 more substantial than words, and pro- posed to erect a college building. The Center church gave the land-two
 acres on the southeast corner of the
 present campus; subscriptions were
 opened, and the work was soon under
 way Governor Saltonstall, who built splendid mansion of his own design
 ing on the east shore of Lake Salton-
 stall, was consulted in regard to the
 architectonick part of the building"
 By October 8, 1717, the structure was
 raised, and by the 31st the Trustees
 write We are in hopes of having
 shortly perfected a splendid Collegiate
 house. We behold its far aspect to the
 market place of New Haven, mounted
 in an eminent place thereof, in length
 ten rods, in breadth twenty-one foot,
 and nearly thirty foot upright. spa
 cious hall, and an equally spacious li-
 brary, all in little time to be splen-
 didly completed" An ancient picture
 of the building is still to be seen in the
 library which makes 1t easy to imag-
 inc the governors placid content as he
 beheld the fruit of his imagination with
 its three stories, it's crown of chimneys
 and dormers, and it's curious belfry,
 Besides the spacious hall' on the ground floor which served the double purpose of dining-room and chapel. and the "equally spacious library the building contained dormitory room for about sixty students. The bequest or Elihu Yale made possible it's comple- ton and dedication in ITS, and amid great festivity the college was brought in triumph to her permanent home in New Haven.
 In the following twenty-two years the number of students increased so rapidly that in TAO half of them were compelled to lodge 'in town" Another dormitory was clearly necessity, but the colony was too poor to make an ap- propriation, and the matter rested four years Then President Clap, having remarked the success of a lottery in.I the colony of New York induced Con necticut to set up the wheel in the l cause of a new building With the | money thus raised South Middle was | begun, and times were so hard that the | was not laid until 175O, | and as late as 175S the rooms were | ready for only partial occupati ton In l 175S, however, the President and Eel | lows, with the Beadle, had entered the l unfinished building in solemn pomp, | and, and, performing the rite of dedl- | cation, named it Connecticut hall For | years it was known as 'the finest | building in the colony" Subsequent all | terations have destroyed much of its | original comeliness by removing the | gambrel roof and formers and adding | a fourth story; bupt the curious visitor may still trace the lines of the ancient | gables in the walls at either end, and | reconstruct in imagination what must have been building of peculiar dignity and charm. Even now 1t is not alto sether ugly, with the broad roof, the nicely varied proportion of the end and the rare tons of it's red walls, deepened and enriched by time and reminding one of Rusklns delight in the plum-coored walls of St Johns college, Cambridge. All its contempor- aries are gone, and it's present position looms it to almost inevitable demoi- ton within short time Could it not be restored to it's former proportions, and receive it's ancient name? Har- yard rightly cherishes her Massachu- setts Hall, and Princeton her Nassau Tan Yale afford to lose the only re- lliiiiiS cttNt'ib iipl n VI lici cillIqully | he last relic of her early struggles and .riumphs?
 Most Yale men will recall the old Atheneum. with it's ugly octagonal tow IT, copied. if we may believe it. from he Athenian Tower of the Winds, and ts dingy class rooms where many ireamy hours have been spent They lnew the building only after it had allen on evil days and it's early splen- Tor had departed. In the old times it vas glorified with high steeple of the veil known New England type, which ] proudly overlooked the tower and har- ,or. The building was erected at the ime when President Clap in the face if bitter and violent opposition, with lreW the students from the congrega- ion of the old First Church on the ; 1reen and established an dependent { hurch within the college walls From 762 to 1884 it served as the college l hapel A gallery surrounded it on l hree sides within and three oratorical | ( ostre arose in front of the high pews or use in the Latin disputes. From -s pulpit President Daggett and Presi- ent Stiles preached their stirring Rev t sermons, and in later years l President Dwight, the older, labored {