The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-12
Improvements That VIII Be Started
 in Few Months.

When Uncle Sam gave West Point by way of a birthday present, $50 1000. to
 be expended on her buildings and grounds, the old gentleman cannily att tached one condition to the gift. Not one cent was to be spent until the whole had been planned. He would tolerate no patchwork. He wanted military acad- emy plant that the nation could take pride in--not magnificent building here or there, entirely too fine for It's neigh bors, or a bit of beautifully developed park fianked by acres uncared for or neglected because the funds had run out.
 He figured out that for $5,500,000 West Point could be enlarged and improved | to meet all possible requirements both
 as to buildings and grounds.
 l The problem is one of landscape gar
 dening almost as much as of architec- ture. There will be new buildings built | and old buildings remodeled, and there
 win be new roads and new paths. a new
 landing stage for ferry and pleasure
 boats and the roadway which is the
 main approach to the Academy is to
 be graded up so as to pass over the rail-
 road. And there will be an elevator | top, which many will find a blessing un- alloyed.
 | Of the buildings about the only one that | is to remain absolutely intact is the pres ent library. That is comparatively new building and will remain undisturbed. Next to it at present stands the chapel
 which will be razed to make room for a second big academic building, on the main roadway and opposite to the old
 academic building. The new building
 will almost duplicate the old. being sim | liar in general style and size. It will contain class rooms laboratories and lec- ture rooms, doubling the present capaci- | ty for work It will be connected with the old building by a monumental arched
 bridge of elaborately carved stone and | full of niches for statuary.
 The biggest of all the buildings is to
 be the new riding hall, which is to have
 a clear space inside of 600 by 120 feet. The building is placed on the lower level of the cliff and Is simple to the verge | of severity in its design. It is so placed as to give the effect of being an up- cropping of the cliff on whose brow it stands, and 1t is to be built from the | rock of the cliff. The roof of the great
 riding hall is to be supported by steel trusses, while a large lower tower at the corner rises over what is on the lower story a room for equipments as well as a public or gallery entrance. This is one of the new buildings in which West Point takes particular pride as 1t prom ises to be one of the finest riding halls In the world.
 Post headquarters" or the administra- ton building of lne reservation, is at present one of the smallest and most in- adequate of the main buildings. In the new plans 1t is to be on its present site, but infinitely enlarged and improved. It will be built around a court almost as big as the present building, and will be
 three stories high, with a tower 5Ox60 feet and 16o feet high, or eight stories.
 This will be a very elaborate building of cut stone. The Tower stories will be devoted to a military museum, relieving
 the academic building in which the mus cum is now housed. and the upper stories | to the necessary offices.
 The chapel having been busted from its snug berth alongside the library, will
 be moved back considerably from the | river. It will be placed on the rise of ! the hill. above all the other buildings | except the observatory-a little removed,
 the casual outsider cannot help think ing. from the every day life of the reser-
 vation. However, 1t will be finely-mon-
 umentally-effective from the river,
 whence It's tower can be seen from both the north and the south approaches. The | building Is to be severely Gothic, outside and in. It will 20OxS0 feet, with a tower
 140 feet high.
 Its outer walls will be of cut stone, Willlo tHo lHtcElOT VIII De n COtnDlndllOn of cut stone and brick 60 feet high, and vaulted in masonry. while the finishings will be rich in detail. It is planned to make this a sort of Westminster Abbey, place where national army heroes may await the sounding of the last great reveille.
 Further up still the rounded dome of the Points observatory will show through the trees and the Points hotel for 0ox lva oHnf rz,. Al 1t necessary to be his own hotelkeeper- which has been heretofore in this part of the grounds, will be moved consider ably to the south. about on a line, with the railway station and the landing stage, and be it not forgotten, the elevator. It will be fine hoto!; hotel that any first class summer resort would be proud of; run for the accommodation of the cadets friends and visitors and for the casual outsider. and, of course. for such naili-
 tary visitors as are neitk-r the official guests of the post nor the personal guests of the officers. The superintendent quarters. which are to be shifted to the axis of the main avenue. practically commanding the entire academy and post, will contain suites of apartments
 for visiting digntaries, and the recep- ton rooms in addition to said superin- | tendent's residential quarters.
 Last. but not least of the building in- provements, is the enlargement of the
 cadet barracks. To this end there have
 been added to the old building seven di- visions. one at the southeast corner of
 the old. four at the southeast corner of the area and two at the southwest corner
 of the old. These seven divisions will
 provide for thirty-two men each.
 The necessity of providing quarters for
 224 cadets is proof at once of the painful
 inadequacy of the present barracks, and
 of the rate of growth which those most
 familiar with the affairs of the academy
 evidently expect of 1t. For, as the law
 now stands, the "corps of cadets" con
 sists of one from each congressional dis trict, one from each territory. one from
 the District of Columbia. one from Porto
 Rico. two from each state at large. and
 forty from the United States at large
 all to be appointed by the President. and
 with the exception of the forty appointed from the United States at large, to be
 actual residents of the congressional or
 territorial districts. or of the District of Columbia, or of the states, respectively | from which they are appointed. Under