Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/399

A THIRD PERIOD OF BUILDING 347 dently been controlled by this principle, "When in doubt lay a cornerstone." The interest of the occasion was increased by the presence of the Founder, who seemed to observe every incident and listen to every address with unflagging attention. Before the laying of each cornerstone of the Tower Group President Harper made a very brief introductory statement. The list of articles deposited in the stone was then read by the Secretary of the Board of Trustees. The stone was laid by a student, and an address by a member of the faculty concluded the ceremony. In the grouping of these four buildings Hutchinson Hall was placed to the right of the Mitchell Tower, extending west along Fifty-seventh Street and covering the north side of Hutchinson Court. To the left of the Tower and running south on University Avenue was the Reynolds Club House. The entrance through the Tower opened into a cloister twenty feet wide extending along the west side of the Club House and leading to Mandel Assembly Hall, which was the southern building of the group. The Tower gave entrance to the Commons, and the cloister to the Commons Cafe and the Club House, as well as to Mandel Hall. Two doors also connected the cloister with Hutchinson Court. Mandel Hall opened on the street and on the court at both front and rear, giving ample entrances and exits. The formal opening of the Group took place December 22, 1903, though the various buildings had been occupied in the preceding October. The cost of the entire Group was four hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars, part of the cost being paid from Mr. Rockefeller's two-million-dollar sub- scription of 1895. The University never expended money more profitably than in the erection of this beautiful group of buildings. The Mitchell Tower was not merely the vestibule of the entire Group and one of the principal entrances to the University quad- rangles, but it was a creation of beauty of extraordinary educational value to every student. In the great hall of Hutchinson were hung portraits of men and women who had done conspicuous service for the University, and here the men students took their meals. Here were held the President's quarterly receptions and other social functions. Here the Convocation dinners, alumni banquets, football feasts, and other gatherings of every description where