6 



economy by banishing useless embellishment, were aims always 

 controlling and uppermost with the Regents. How far they have 

 succeeded time will show, and must be left to the candor of public 

 opinion. Not doubting that the experienced and reliable con- 

 tractors for the work will accomplish their undertaking, in all its 

 details, with exactitude and fidelity, I may venture to give you an 

 anticipation in brief of the building whose first stone is now laid. 



Its exterior will present a specimen of the style of architecture 

 that prevailed some seven centuries ago, chiefly in Germany, 

 Normandy, and southern Europe, which preceded the Gothic, 

 and continues to recommend itself, for structures like this, to the 

 most enlightened judgment. It is known as the Norman, or, 

 more strictly speaking, the Lombard style. It harmonizes alike 

 with the extent, the grave uses, and the massive strength of the 

 edifice ; it exacts a certain variety in the forms of its parts ; and 

 it authorizes any additions that convenience may require, no 

 matter how seemingly irregular they may be. 



It will extend, east and west, an entire front of four hundred 

 and twenty-six feet, having a central building of fifty by two 

 hundred feet in the clear, inside, with two towers ; two wings of 

 unequal fronts; the east one forty -five by seventy-five feet in the 

 clear, inside, with a vestibule and porch attached to it; the west 

 one thirty -four by sixty-five feet in the clear, inside, with a 

 northern semicircular projection. These wings will be connect- 

 ed with the central building by two ranges sixty feet in length 

 in the clear, inside. It will have a central rear tower, and other 

 towers of different heights, sizes, and characters, two of them 

 placed in the wings. All these numerous towers are essential to 

 arrangements within — as flues, stairways, ventilators, and detached 

 rooms — and are of different heights, varying from sixty to one 

 hundred and fifty feet. 



The first story of the central building will be occupied by the 

 library, the chief lecture room, and the principal hall; the second 

 story by the museum. The laboratory and chemical lecture 

 room will occupy the east wing; the gallery of art the western 

 wing and western connecting range. The chosen material is a 

 freestone of a lilac grey color, drawn from a quarry on the banks 

 of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, near Seneca Creek, and but 

 twenty-three miles from this spot. 



It is gratifying to me to be able to accompany this imperfect 

 sketch with the statement, that the entire pile is to be finished 

 and furnished, and fitted up, for a sum less, by many thousand 

 dollars, than the one set apart by Congress as applicable to the 

 building alone. 



