130 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the foundry Aviug, a loss, based upon inventoried values of $250,000, and 

 a replacement loss of $350,000. These figures do not include the per- 

 sonal losses in hooks, instruments, data and records of the teaching 

 force of the division, nor the losses of drawing and other tools and cloth- 

 ing by the students. 



I was out of the city at the time. The President was on the ground, 

 and to his energy and good judgment, is due the recovery of the students, 

 faculty and community from the immediate shock of the catastrophe 

 and the awakening in all concerned of a magnificent spirit of coopera- 

 tion around the central idea of restoration of engineering at M'. A. C. 

 to its former status and a better foundation than ever before. 



Classes, deprived of facilities by the fire, were assembled for work 

 in provisional quarters on the day following the fire, and the work of the 

 winter term was completed in good form. 



The President, the College Architect and the Dean of Engineering, at 

 once began the preparation of plans for rebuilding. See Exhibit "A" 

 appended hereto. These were soon completed for submission to the 

 Board of Agriculture, which authorized the calling for bids, and on 

 April 19th contracts were aw^arded to F. C. Trier of Saginaw for the 

 rebuilding of the Engineering Building as a fire-proof structure on sub- 

 stantially the same lines, as the old building erected in 1907, and to 

 Byers Bros. Construction Company of Kalamazoo for three fire-proof 

 shop buildings, each covering a ground area, 160 x 50 feet, one of them 

 two stories in height, the others one story. 



The financial problem involved in the plans for the restoration of en- 

 gineering was serious, but was relieved in a large measure by the con- 

 tribution of the sum of .$100,000 by Mr. K. E. Olds of Lansing towards 

 the cost of replacing the buildings. This gift resulted from the personal 

 suggestion of the President. 



The new engineering hall will be called The R. E. Olds Hall of En- 

 gineering as a remiuder of the generosity of Mr. Olds, and to perpetuate 

 the significance of the gift as a recogniticni of engineering at M'. A. C. 

 by one of the foremost manufacturers and citizens of Michigan. 



Parallel with the building plans were the plans for equipment. Sur- 

 veying instruments to the value of $5,000.00 were ordered immediately 

 for the spring term. Machinery, instruments and furniture have been 

 already largely selected and placed on order. 



The ruins have been wrecked and cleared away, ground broken for 

 the new shops, and the walls are going up under the energetic driving of 

 the contractors and the interested eyes of everybody. 



It is expected that the shops will be occupied for work at the begin- 

 ning of the fall term, 1916, and that the E. E. Olds Hall of Engineer- 

 ing will be completed by December 1, 1916. 



The next annual report of the Dean of Engineering should contain 

 full descriptions of the new buildings and equipment, and should chron- 

 icle the completion of an achievement highly creditable to this Col- 

 lege — the successful recovery from a great disaster and its conversion 

 into a new era which will be characterized by greater solidarity of inter- 

 ests between all of the activities of the entire College than ever before, 

 and by the certain knowledge, born of experience, that cooperation, hard 

 work and determination are equal to any emergency. 



