House and Garden 
most unsuitable for 
building purposes, 
having been long used 
as a refuse heap, hos¬ 
pitable to the thou¬ 
sand nondescript ob¬ 
jects which are the 
continual outpour¬ 
ings of a city’s mar¬ 
gin. A portion of 
the site once served 
as a potters’ field, 
where a hundred 
years ago a visitation 
of yellow fever caused 
many bodies to be 
buried here. All of 
this “ made ground,” 
had to be further filled 
in and levelled, when 
a committee of the 
University alumni ac¬ 
quired it about ten 
years ago for the end 
which has now been 
realized. To accom¬ 
modate all the various 
college sports at a 
given figure of cost 
and within fixed 
boundaries of space 
was a task of difficult 
proportions. The 
entire field was surrounded by a brick wall, 
the foundations of which had to be made 
so wide as to tax the insufficient earth 
with no greater load than a thousand 
pounds per square foot. The space within 
was provided with an elaborate drainage 
system and the finished surface of the 
field was brought to a slight crown, i. e., 
made about fifteen inches higher in the cen¬ 
ter than at the sicies. Covered with turf, it 
accommodates the base-ball diamond in sum¬ 
mer; in the autumn, the foot-ball gridiron. 
Surrounding this is a one-quarter mile track 
on whose south side a 220 yards straightaway 
dash is possible. The stands enclose the field 
on three sides and will seat twenty thousand 
persons. In the center of the north and 
south sides is a single row of box seats 
separated from others by railings and entered 
by means of wickets. At the summit of the 
north stand is an en¬ 
closure for reporters, 
and with provision 
for telegraphic instru¬ 
ments. Underneath 
are ten squash-courts 
for students, a run¬ 
ning track for use in 
winter, and lavatories 
for the public. As 
many as four broad 
portals give conve¬ 
nient entrance and 
egress and enable 
crowds of spectators 
to reach or depart 
from the field by 
means of six electric 
car lines. Nor are 
these the only means 
of transportation 
which now make 
Franklin Field acces¬ 
sible to the public. 
A block and a half 
away is the new West 
Philadelphia Station, 
already an important 
focus of travel over 
the Pennsylvania 
Railroad; and by rea¬ 
son ofits location,des¬ 
tined to become the 
chief railway center of Philadelphia. Coming 
now to the gymnasium building proper, we 
shall find it to be in a style similar to other 
structures recently added to the University 
group. To be precise, it represents the 
transition from Tudor to Jacobean work, 
for there are features which bespeak both of 
these periods of English architecture. Many 
of the doorways are of a shape characteristic 
of the former, and yet it is to be observed 
that Renaissance traditions have guided the 
design of nearly all the remaining detail, 
much as they did in the building of James’ 
time. These details are chiefly carried out 
in terra-cotta, the only stone used being upon 
the bay-windows. Both stone and terra¬ 
cotta unite in a warm gray color which goes 
well with the rich red and vari-shaded brick 
of the walls and the greenish slate of the roof. 
'The difficulties of building on such a site 
THE NEW FRANKLIN FIELD 
The Architects Block Plan 
19 
