RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTE. ^1 



There exists, in the Institute, a very great difference of opin- 

 ion as to the proper site for a location. The rapid tendency 

 to up-town residences seems to indicate the propriety of fixing 

 upon some spot as far up as Fortieth street, the point which, in 

 all probability, will become, within a few years, the centre of the 

 more permanent resident population of the city; while it is obvi- 

 ous that the centre of mechanical business and the centre of 

 transient population must continue for a long time, certainly for 

 the next half century, below Grand street. An important fact 

 in this relation must be borne in mind, that the up-town resident 

 population is not what constitutes the best portion of the patron- 

 age of the Institute. The mechanical and mercantile community, 

 with the strangers and business men who visit our city, are the 

 principal contributors and paying patrons of the fairs. Nor 

 must it be overlooked that Paterson, Newark, Jersey City and 

 Brooklyn contribute nearly or quite as much to their support as 

 the city of New York. 



By excluding from the fairs much that has heretofore occu- 

 pied space without adding to their interest or to their character, 

 less ground space will be required. By a careful economy of 

 room, and by the adoption of the most approved plans for the 

 display galleries of the different stories of the building, it is 

 possible that a space equivalent to six or eight lots of ground 

 may be found sufficient for business purposes,, for the ordinary 

 annual fairs, for the library, the repository and the club rooms. 

 Any revenue from rents, in addition to accommodating all the 

 wants of the Institute, will depend entirely upon the location of 

 the building. I have no confidence in the success of exhibitions 

 remote from Broadway, the great metropolitan thoroughfare. 



II. A location secured and proper accommodations provided, 

 the Institute would be strengthened by the immediate re-estab- 

 ment of a repository or museum, in which should be exhibited all 

 such articles of American invention and manufacture, and such 

 rare and valuable works of art and objects of natural history as 

 may from time to time come into the possession of the Institute. 

 Articles not the property of the Institute left on exhibition to be 

 subject to a monthly charge according to the space and position 

 which they occupy ; thus in fact establishing a permanent exhi- 

 bition. 



III. An important service can be rendered to mechanical and 

 professional enterprise by establishing, either in the museum or 



