Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/442

CHAPTER XV SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS In the course of this narrative the story of many important events in the history of the University has been told. There are, however, others which are so essential a part of that history as to demand attention and for which no place has yet been found. It is proposed, in order to make the narrative fairly complete, to group these events together and present them in the order of time in which they occurred. Events so crowded upon each other in the history of the University, the historical material is so super- abundant, that it has been necessary to make careful selection, and, passing by many events that might be of interest, direct attention to those that touched most vitally the life of the institution. The first of these occurred in the first year. The professors, strangers to each other and feeling the need of better acquaintance and closer fellowship, got together and organized in 1893 the Quad- rangle Club. The earliest records of the Club have not survived its changes of location and its fires. Its first meetings were held in the Hotel Del Prado, where, in the first years, many of the pro- fessors found a home. The first president was Harry Pratt Judson, later President of the University. At the March, 1895, Convo- cation President Harper made the following interesting statement: The friends of the University will be pleased to learn that the Quadrangle Club is making plans for a permanent home on Lexington Avenue, opposite the University. The membership of the club, originally restricted to Uni- versity instructors, has been opened to the Trustees of the University .... and others. The proposed club house will cost about thirty thousand dollars. This building, if erected, will serve as a social headquarters for the faculties of the University and their friends. The good already resulting from the organization of the club has been beyond estimate. With a permanent home, increased facilities, and closer proximity to the grounds of the University, the Club will be able to render a service to the University which no other agency could perform. The club house was built on the southeast corner of Fifty- eighth Street and University Avenue, and was finished and occu- 388