6 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In the city of Philadelphia there has been dedicated and opened^ 

 during the past year, a new fire-proof building for the Pennsyl- 

 vania Horticultural Society, designed to promote the work in 

 which we, of this Massachusetts Society, are all interested. 



The land upon Avhich the Pennsylvania Society has built was 

 owned by William L. Shaffer, thirty-four years a member and 

 seventeen years president, who, at his death in August, 1884, 

 left his entire estate to his sister, who, in May, 1887, by deed of 

 trust, placed the land and a building which had previously been 

 used by the Horticultural Society in the hands of trustees and 

 their successors, to hold forever for the benefit of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Horticultural Society. In May, 1893, the hall was a 

 second time destroyed by fire. 



In the autumn of 1894, on approval of the Society, it was 

 leased for thirty years by the said trustees to five gentlemen, 

 who, as trustees for the bondholders, secured an issue of income 

 bonds, bearing interest at three per cent, f 200,000, with which, 

 together with $25,000 insurance money, the new building has 

 been built. 



The uses to which that new building can be put seem to me to 

 be uses for which a horticultural building can well be erected in 

 this growing city of Boston, and meet a long-felt want ; which, 

 at the same time, would be of a plan best calculated to advance 

 and promote the direct objects for which this Society was incor- 

 porated, i.e., " for encouraging and improving the science and 

 practice of horticulture." 



In considering the future of our Society, it seems to me advis- 

 able to give prominence to our own needs by stating how similar 

 needs have been met by our allies in Pennsylvania. 



The Horticultural Building at Philadelphia is located centrally 

 upon a lot of land two hundred by ninety feet, so situated that it is 

 easy of access by carriage or street car. Some of its entrances are 

 under cover, and all are well planned. Its offices, reception and 

 ante-rooms are commodious, and will accommodate at least one 

 thousand people. These, with a lecture hall and grand staircase 

 hall, are on the first story. Prom the grand staircase one enters 

 the large hall, seventy by one hundred feet, which has a vaulted 

 ceiling at a height of thirty-five feet. This latter room will seat 

 eleven hundred persons for concerts and lectures, and five hun- 

 dred for banquets, and is admirably suited for large assemblies. 



