It was only yesterday that I found in the envelope which had brought me your first draft of report, the note in which you ask me to make my return before last Friday. I am sorry that it had before escaped my notice, and that I had allowed pressing demands that had been accumulating during my recent long absence to prevent me from being as prompt in the matter as I otherwise should have been.

Last night I received your note of the 29th instant, with revised draft.

I had previously prepared a draft of a short supplement to your report, in which I had aimed to give my opinion only upon a few points such as I could assume to speak upon with some professional authority, being under the impression that I ought not to affix my signature in association with yours to a document dealing so largely with matters beyond the scope of my profession. I am still doubtful if I should not serve the ends in view better if my contribution to the discussion was little more than an assurance that, with respect to drainage, sewerage, ventilation, ways of approach and service, and security against sweeping fires originating without the premises, there were no difficulties that need to be weighed against a plan otherwise desirable. But I yield to what appears to be your judgment and that of President Low and the Committee, and will let my signature to your report be appended to yours.

There is only one point as to which I do not find myself prepared to cordially assent to your conclusions. Recalling the effect on my mind of yellow brick, as I have become habituated to it in some of our Western cities, and meditating upon the question since my conversation with you, I find that I should much prefer red brick, as I have seen it in some old collegiate buildings, especially when bodies of foliage came at all into composition with it. I should be still more disposed to favor some less costly stone than that of Mr. Hunt’s predilection. The Belleville sandstone, for example, as it appears in Trinity, is always gratifying to my eyes, and I think the more so when I see it after passing the yellow brick structure to the northward of it, although, for its purpose, I have always liked the latter. Perhaps you will think it unnecessary to deal with the question in this report.

You will find a few queries on the margin of your last draft as to verbal matters that may have been misprints. On page 10 you will also find a suggestion for revising a single clause. I think that you have used the term “park-like” inaccurately. To my mind the term applies only to scenery of an extended, pastoral aspect. It cannot be rightly used with reference to confined courts.

I will offer for your consideration suggestions as to two or three possible additions to the report.

[627]

1: One of the architects speaks of the desirability of arranging the building plan with some regard to the preservation of certain trees on the ground. Numbers of them being of moderate size and vigorous habit, may be transplanted from their present situations to points where they will stand in satisfactory adjustment to any desirable arrangement of buildings. As to what is practicable in this respect, it may be observed that the trees on and near the Mall of the Central Park were most of them removed thirty years ago, from a point several miles beyond the Harlem River, to their present positions. In their original locality they had grown naturally, in a crowded way, and otherwise unfavorably to the purpose. They were generally then from four to six inches in diameter of trunk at four feet from the ground, and they were moved in many cases under extremely adverse circumstances. Their present condition will indicate with what success the above suggestion could be carried out, even in application to much larger trees, when growing under favorable circumstances close at hand within the college property. The trees that could not be thus dealt with to advantage are mostly such as, because of their age or infirmities, are not likely to be so long-lived if left where they are that a determination in any material aspect of the general building plan of the college should be affected by regard for them.

2: There are several public streets near the site, of such unusually steep grade that they would be avoided in the ordinary street transportation of merchandise. There are, also, on the east and west sides of the site, public pleasure grounds which will compel very indirect courses to be taken for such transportation. For these reasons the district is as little likely to be ever occupied for manufacturing or commercial purposes as any in this city. No other is more likely to be a permanently choice residence district. Nevertheless, there is danger that buildings will be erected, on ground adjoining the college, of the extremely lofty class now becoming common for hotels, apartment houses, and offices, and, as with reference to the purposes of the college, such structures immediately about it would be gravely objectionable, the question should have consideration whether some expedient cannot be devised by which this danger can be lessened. It may be pointed out, suggestively in this respect, that if a narrow strip of ground on the side of the streets opposite the college property could be let on long building leases, with restrictions against excessive height in structures to be built upon it, the probability is that it would be occupied by fine private dwellings, and that in no other way could a better and more assured income be obtained upon the capital to be invested. If no provision is practicable by which substantially such a result could be secured, it may be considered whether through an arrangement with the present owners of the property in question, and through favorable action of the city government, some modification of the present building laws might not be obtained from the legislature, by which the desired end could be reached.

3: With reference to your proposition that the principal portal and [628]monumental face of the college shall be in a recess from the street, at the south end of the property, the suggestion may be considered, whether by widening this street fifty feet, for one block, where it passes the college, the effect of a fairly spacious ante-court, esplanade or plaza might not be obtained. Such an open space would, it appears to me, add much to the dignity as well as to the convenience of the situation, and would provide some increased security against sweeping fires. Half the widening could be made on each side of the street, and the increased value which property on the South would gain through a frontage on such a Place might be made a means of keeping down the cost of the operation.

Faithfully Yours