189O Rohle Hall 



rushed to completion. But for the young women a Provision 

 very special effort was necessary, as the original idea ^"''""'^'^^ 

 had been not to admit them until later, when another 

 huge dormitory, already begun, could be made ready 

 for their reception. But it had seemed to me that 

 they should be present from the beginning, so that 

 their admittance might not appear in any sense an 

 afterthought, or their relation that of an "Annex." 

 Mrs. Stanford at once agreed and immediately gave 

 orders for the erection of Roble ^ Hall, which, 

 though not begun until early July, must be finished 

 and furnished for the opening on October i. Haste 

 being the prime essential, recourse was had to the 

 "Ransome Process," recently patented — namely, 

 the use of reinforced concrete. Roble was thus the 

 second building for which that method was ever 

 employed, the Museum, already practically com- 

 pleted in its original form, being the first. In both 

 cases the material used was made up of crushed 

 sandstone chippings from the Quadrangle and Encina. 



The Museum, as well as the Memorial Church ne 

 finished in 1902, came very near to Mrs. Stanford's ^^^^^^^ 

 heart. Architecturally it reproduced the Museum 

 at Athens, which young Leland had fixed upon as 

 model for the one he meant to build.^ At the rear, 

 two special rooms were set apart to hold his collec- 

 tion. These duplicate in size and form those allotted 

 to him on the upper floor of the great San Francisco 

 residence, where an elaborate series of photographs 



* Roble (Latin robur) is the Spanish name for the White Oak — ^uercus 

 lobata. In 1918 it was transferred to a large and beautiful new dormitory for 

 women, the original Roble being rechristened Sequoia Hall. 



^ In 1900 Mrs. Stanford added to this structure a series of two-story wings 

 which passed around from either side, and meeting behind, enclosed a quad- 

 rangular court. 



C 385 3 



