4 
there will be required, in addition, space for walls, vestibules, 
stairways, a lecture room to seat 500 persons, at least fifteen 
committee rooms and apartments suitable to accommodate on the 
premises a general curator or superintendent, and a janitor, with 
their families. 
After this report was considered, the finance committee was 
“ instructed to inquire and report what suitable lots of ground 
can be purchased, and at what prices.” 
Several lots were examined. It became apparent at once that 
their prices were so large that the greater part of the money 
subscribed would be absorbed in the purchase of any one of 
them, and the sum left would be scarcely enough to lay the 
foundation-walls of an edifice adapted in its extent to the actual 
wants of the institution. 
Under this aspect of the subject, at the meeting of April 11th, 
Messrs. Welsh, Whelen and Budd were appointed a committee 
“ to inquire whether one of the public squares at Broad and 
Market streets can be obtained for the site of the new building 
of the Academy.” 
At the meeting of the board, May 10th, a letter addressed to 
the Academy by a mixed committee composed of members of the 
Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the 
Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical 
Society, and the Franklin Institute, was referred to the trustees 
of the building fund by the Academy. This letter asked certain 
information relative to the occupancy of the Penn squares by the 
societies named, and was answered by the board. 
Through the agency of the gentlemen of this mixed committee, 
encouraged by the warm approval and intelligent cooperation of 
the Hon. Morton McMichael, Mayor of the city, and several 
members of the municipal legislature, the Councils passed an act, 
which was approved by the Mayor November 4th, asking from 
the legislature of Pennsylvania authority to grant, on certain 
conditions, the use of the Penn squares to the societies named. 
The action of the legislature may not be known for two or three 
months; but the board of trustees deems it expedient to wait its 
decision, which it is hoped will be favorable. 
In this connection it is proper to mention that a gentleman 
