366 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The undergraduate department of the university has always recog- 

 nized that its field of usefulness lay in the city of St. Louis, and no 

 attempt has been made to draw students from a distance. In the early 

 catalogues of the university is found this notice : ' ' Washington Univer- 

 sity has the advantage of not being incumbered with the dormitory 

 system, which has been proved by experiment to be both expensive and 

 troublesome — a great part of the disturbances so common in collegiate 

 institutions and most of the temptations to which young men in college 

 are exposed, arise from their monastic mode of life, and the consequent 

 removal from the social influence of home." 



But in the last fifty years conditions have changed. St. Louis is 

 no longer a small western town of 78,000, but a metropolis of 700,000 

 inhabitants and the great commercial center of a vast and rapidly grow- 

 ing territory, especially to the south and southwest, and preparations 

 had to be made to receive the increasing number of students coming 

 to St. Louis for university training. Then the westward growth of the 

 city had left the group of university buildings in the midst of factories 

 and other objectionable surroundings. The noise was uncongenial to 

 classic teaching, the passing cars and heavy traffic prevented delicate 

 scientific observations and the dirt and smoke made the situation almost 

 unbearable. 



In 1896 a tract of land containing 110 acres on the western border 

 of the city, adjoining Forest Park, was purchased with the intention of 

 moving the undergraduate department to this high and commanding 

 situation. The purchase price of $296,000 was subscribed by citizens 

 f St. Louis, largely through the efforts of the president of the board of 

 dij-ectors, Mr. Robert S. Brookings, to whom also belongs the credit of 

 raising an endowment fund of $500,000, of which he gave one fifth, as 

 well as the gift of the Cupples Station, a large group of wholesale busi- 

 ness buildings with splendid railroad facilities, valued at $3,000,000, 

 the joint gift of Mr. Brookings and Mr. Samuel Cupples. 



An architectural competition was held to select a design for a group 

 of buildings for the undergraduate department on the new site. Plans 

 were submitted by the best architects of the country, and after careful 

 deliberation by an impartial committee those of Messrs. Cope and Stew- 

 ardson, of Philadelphia, were selected. 



The style of architecture is that of the Tudor-Gothic period, and 

 the buildings are constructed of the best red Missouri granite in the 

 most substantial manner, and are thoroughly fireproof ; they are all two 

 stories high, thereby avoiding tedious climbing, the lecture rooms and 

 numerous laboratories are large, well-lighted and ventilated, and all the 

 latest improvements in scientific ediication are included, making them 

 equal, if not superior, to any group of college buildings in the country. 



Eleven buildings are now occupied and ready for occupancy by 



