The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 39 



Accordingly contracts were drawn and accepted 

 by the three parties interested. The building- was to 

 cost $100,000, of which Mr. Laflin contributed $75,000, 

 and the board of commissioners of Lincoln Park $25- 

 000. The contract specified that the building- should 

 be known as the Matthew Laflin Memorial, and should 

 be occupied chiefly for the purposes of the Academy, 

 a suite of apartments being- set aside for the offices of 

 the park authorities. The Academy was to have abso- 

 lute and perpetual control of that part of the building- 

 devoted to its uses. 



Appreciative recognition should be made here of 

 the wise forethought of Mr. Goudy shown in the adjust- 

 ment of these conditions, in which the interests of both 

 the Academy and of the park were alike conserved. 

 This wise and sagacious friend and counselor did 

 not survive to see the building erected or the condi- 

 tions of the contract fully operative. Mr. Goudy died 

 April 27, 1893. 



The site furnished for the building was most desir- 

 able. It was situated on the west side of the park, 

 opposite the opening of Center street. The building 

 was designed by architects Patton & Fisher, upon 

 lines suggested by the officers of the Academy. It 

 was to be 132 feet in length by sixty-one feet in width, 

 with a central portico in front forty feet in width and 

 a projection of eleven feet. The style of architecture 

 was to be Italian renaissance, the material buff Bed- 

 ford limestone surmounted by a roof of red tile. The 

 "entrance was to be by a massive flight of stone steps, 

 thirty-six feet in width, leading to a triple arch stone 

 portico. On the first floor were to be the entrance hall, 

 library and offices of the Academy and park commis- 

 sioners. The great museum hall on the second floor 

 was to be 55x128 feet in size, and surrounded on all 

 sides by a gallery. 



The corner stone of this edifice was laid October 10, 

 1893, in the presence of a large audience. Addresses 



