Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-06-18
MILLIONS MORE
FOR ACADEMY.
Bancroft Hall Additions And
Other Building Operations
Have Been Provided For.
SEAMANSHIP BUILDING.
House And Senate Conferees
Agree To Provide For This
Structure In Bill.

More than $6,5OO,0OO will be ex-
pended at the Naval Academy on
work which has already begun or
which has been authorized. The larg-
est item is $2,S50,000, for the additions
to Bancroft Hall, the quarters of the
Midshipmen, which are already well
advanced. The next largest item is
$2,500,000 for a new navigation and
seamanship building, which will also
contain spacious auditorium. Other
large items are: $450,000 for a radio
plant and auxiliary building; $780,
600 for new power plant; 100000
for additions to the marine engineer
ing building, and 100000 for a garage.
The additions to Bancroft Hall con-
sist of wings extending at right angles
to the main building on the southeast
side. The east wing, which is expect
ed to be completed by September /,
will contain 2S3 rooms, each accom-
modating two Midshipmen The west
wing, which is to be completed by
February /, 1919, will contain 290
rooms of the same size. The original
building contains a slightly larger
number of rooms than the two addi-
tions, so that the whole building will
accommodate more than $500 Midship-
men. However, one wing will not be
completed when the new academic
year begins, and some Midshipmen
will still have to be supplied with
temporary quarters for time
The construction of the seamanship
and navigation building is assured by
the agreement of the House conferees
to the item proposed by the Senate.
Particular interest centers in the new
auditorium. 1t will seat 5000, the
chapel, the largest auditorium now at
the Academy, holding only 1,100. The
greatest effort has been made TO fol-
low the most approved principles in
acoustics in its construction, the serv-
ices of Hugh Tallant, an authority on
the subject, having been secured. The
building will consist of a basement and
first floor devoted to instruction pur-
poses, topped by the auditorium, which
will contain a gallery. The building
will be in the form of Grecian cross.
The east wing of Bancroft Hall is
now used as a seamanship and navi-
cation building and gymnasium COM
bined. Both departments are in ur-
gent need of larger quarters with the
great increase in the number of Mid
shipmen. When the Department of
Navigation and Seamanship is moved
to its new quarters the whole building
will be used as gymnasium, and a
number of improvements will be made
for it's greater usefulness in this line.
For the present the radio station
across the Severn River is the most
powerful station in the world, but
within d few weeks it will yield the
palm to the station which the govern
ment is constructing in France. The
local station has four steel towers,
each 600 feet high, but the station in
France will have eight S50foot tow
ers. Communication between the two
is expected TO start in August.
The scope of the work on hand and
the amount of expenditures exceeds
anything undertaken at the Naval
Academy except the original construc-
tion which converted what had been
the Academy from 1S45 to the period
of the Spanish-American War into the
New Naval Academy"