1869.] secretary's report. 33 



their products, and then refuse them the space absolutely essential to their dis- 

 play. But, with all deference to the committee, and in utter ignorance of their 

 design, your Secretary must be pardoned for expressing a decided repugnance to 

 the expenditure of another dollar, except for indispensable repairs, upon the 

 present hall. His views upon the subject of a change of location have been too 

 recently expressed to require repetition. It must suffice here to remark that 

 those views have only strengthened with the lapse of the two years since they 

 were first urged upon your attention. The tendency of heavy, wholesale busi- 

 ness towards and along Front street, is increasingly manifest. That considera- 

 tion, of itself, must sooner or later compel our removal. The inadequacy and 

 inconvenience of our present accommodations is a matter from which your 

 thoughts can no longer be withheld, with however much resolution you may 

 attempt to avert them. With all the avenues of approach blockaded by skids 

 and produce, in the busiest season of the year when our exhibition must be 

 holden ; with our halls themselves, now confessedly overwhelmed by a generous 

 profusion of contributions ; with the certainty that a change of location cannot 

 always be unceremoniously whistled down the wind ; what is the step which a 

 wise forethought dictates to be taken while there is yet opportunity ? For it 

 should be borne in mind, as was heretofore suggested, that sites suitable for our 

 purposes are rapidly covering with costly and imposing structures. Thjit the 

 hall for which the public need clamors, and which need, like all other wants, is 

 sure to be supplied, if not by ourselves then to our annoyance and loss ; that 

 hall larger than the original Brinley, but similar in its quiet elegance of sym- 

 metry and adornment ; that, which ought to be Horticultural Hall, is steadily 

 and ever demanded, and was never more requisite than now. This Society, 

 twenty years ago, builded, wisely and well for the time, upon this spot. Is it 

 not incumbent upon us, their survivors or successors, to reflect deeply — cau- 

 tiously if you please — but thereafter to act boldly ! Your Secretary, " taking 

 too much upon himself," perhaps, in violation of the injunction of Scripture, 

 suggested the Barton estate as a fit location. Nothing came of that reccom- 

 mendation and it is probable, though not certain, that the estate mentioned is 

 beyond our attainment. But other sites are, or soon will be, in the market, of 

 certain value at present, and sure to prove a safe as well as profitable invest- 

 ment. Whether the society shall manifest the courage to place its hall upon 

 Chestnut street, either at the corner of Pearl or Pleasant, is for the members, 

 acting through their Trustees, to determine. Your Secretary could, with a clear 

 conviction, earnestly advise such action. He could more conscientiously and 

 earnestly urge upon you the purchase and edification of the entire tract bounded 

 by those three streets, upon which, a timidity similar to that apparently con- 

 trolling our own corporate action, has forever lost to Episcopacy its chance of 

 erecting the cathedral of the future. No location like it — so suitable, so eligi- 

 ble, so advantageouis in every way, so especially adapted to our wants and so 



