Columbia (College in the (City of Bern ty Statement OF THE Committee on Site January, 1892 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 1-16-92-2,000 Columbia College, nth January, 1892. The Committee on Site of the Trustees of Columbia Col- lege have been charged with the duty of making particular enquiries into the suitability for College purposes of the land at 116th Street and the Boulevard now offered for sale by the Governors of the New York Hospital, and especially as to the probable expense of improving the property, and as to the practicability of making at least temporary use of the existing buildings. The Committee have also been empow- ered to procure estimates of the value of the available assets of the College, for the purpose of enabling the Trustees to determine whether the proposed purchase can be prudently undertaken. These enquiries have not yet been concluded, but they have so far progressed as to make it manifest to the Committee that if the land in question is to be pur- chased at the price asked, and such alterations and additions to the existing buildings are to be made as will fit the prop- erty even for temporary use, the Trustees must either incur such heavy obligations as will greatly hamper the work of the College and delay its growth ; or they must obtain very substantial assistance of a financial kind. The first alterna- tive is one which the Committee would hesitate to recom- mend to the Trustees, and which they believe the Trustees would be slow to adopt ; and the Committee have therefore determined to make at once an earnest effort to obtain from those interested in higher education such assurances of sup- port and help as will render the project of removal imme- diately practicable. 3 Under these circumstances, it is becoming that the argu- ments in favor of the proposed plan should be clearly stated, and that the financial situation of the College with reference to it should be made plain. The Committee assume that no argument is needed to demonstrate the impossibility of the practical development of a great university on our present site. This block, just about one tenth the size of the proposed site, is already too small for our needs ; and its nearness to the railroad makes it, for purposes of instruction, almost as unsuitable as it is too small. The necessity for removal being conceded, the question arises as to where the most advantageous site can be found, whether in the city or its suburbs ; and upon this point opinions may differ, although the Committee are con- vinced that a just appreciation of the existing conditions and the future needs of the College all lead to but one con- clusion. The city is so obviously the best place for students pursuing university courses or attending professional schools as to leave no doubt that university work at least must be conducted at an accessible point within the city limits. As a metropolitan university, Columbia enjoys advantages so exceptional as to render any change involving the sacrifice of these advantages clearly injudicious. The same influences which draw to the city the strongest men in other depart- ments of life, in these days, will draw also the most accom- plished educators, and a university is made great by its teachers. The city also is full of opportunities which con- tribute to the student's advantage. But both of these results depend upon being in the city. Neither one advan- tage nor the other attaches to the suburbs. So much of Columbia's work as is of this advanced character, in the opinion of the Committee, could only be moved off of Man- hattan Island, or away from a central position upon it, at incalculable loss. Moreover, Columbia is too old a tree to be transplanted into a new soil without injury, and to be subjected to conditions wholly foreign to its past. It is possible, however, to consider it practicable to move the College work into the country, while retaining the uni- 5 versity work in the city. There are some who favor this, especially among those who think of the College as it was twenty years ago rather than as it is to-day. The reasons against this course are many, but the following appear to the Committee conclusive. Obviously, it would involve a separation which in its general effect could not fail to be weakening ; it would necessitate a large increase of the faculty, many of whom are engaged in both university and College work ; it would necessitate a duplication of our col- lections, of apparatus, and of books, only to be had at a very large original outlay : and it would lead to greatly in- creased cost of administration. Moreover, such a separa- tion would be necessarily fatal to the system adopted a year ago, under which students in the College enjoy exceptional advantages in all the associated schools. The advanced students also are permitted to select courses under several faculties, and the effect has been to afford all of our students the most liberal opportunities, of which they have been quick to avail themselves. The system also has tended strongly to bind together the College and the several schools by a community of interest which would inevitably be destroyed by a separation of the parts, and which cannot be lost without the greatest injury to all. It may be pointed out also that in entering upon the conduct of a country college, Columbia would be entering upon a com- petition in what is to her a new field, which is already crowded, where she would be pitting her inexperience against the experience and traditions of other colleges, several of whom, for purposes of this work, are stronger and more venerable than herself : colleges, too, which can carry on all their work from one centre, while Columbia would be compelled in such a case to divide her energies between two. Finally, it is the opinion of the Committee that the College owes to the city a certain allegiance which is not to be disregarded. Founded in the very midst of the city, first endowed by 4k The Rector and Inhabitants of the City of New York," the College owes its first duty to the people of the metropolis, and that duty the Committee believe 6 can best be performed by retaining for all the departments of the College a situation in the heart of the city itself. The problem is, therefore, to select a site within the city, large enough to permit the fullest development of the Col- lege in all its parts, both graduate and undergraduate. For this purpose the property, on which the Trustees have an option, has many and great advantages. The verdict of public opinion has been practically unanimous in its favor. By existing rapid transit facilities it is as near, in point of time, to the College of Physicians and Surgeons (the Medical Department of Columbia) as our present situation. It is nearer to the American Museum of Natural History and the new site of the Historical Society, and it is but a little farther from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The near future is certain to increase, its accessibility. Its situation on the heights, one hundred and thirty-eight feet above the sea level, protects it from the annoyance of passing railroad trains, while its relation to the West side of the city secures for it all of the advantages of rapid transit. Topographically, this site is singularly well adapted for our purposes. It comprises nearly twenty acres of land, richly wooded in part, and almost perfectly level, constituting a plateau overlooking the Hudson River and the city, and lying between the Morningside and the Riverside Parks. Its surroundings are among the most beautiful which the City affords, and its position the most commanding, so that the College buildings would there be seen to the greatest advan- tage, and might be made to typify the importance to New York of a great university ; for that city is not greatest which gathers into itself the largest numbers and the great- est contributions of wealth and power from without. The greatest city is that which contributes most to the welfare and progress of mankind, and a university, through what it discovers and through what it teaches, is one of the most important agencies whereby a city can become enduringly famous. The proposed site is bounded by the;Boulevard and Amsterdam Avenue, 116th and 120th Streets, and is 7 775 f eet m width by about 980 in length, more than twice the size of Madison Square. Compared with the grounds occu- pied by other colleges, it is about the size of the Harvard Yard and nearly twice the size of the Yale Campus. Within its limits could be placed all the quadrangles of the three largest colleges of Oxford or Cambridge. If a carefully considered system of construction is adopted, the space available for buildings of all kinds will be much greater than that enjoyed by either Harvard or Yale, where economy of space has not been studied ; and a harmonious and imposing architectural effect can readily be produced. Among such buildings there will be ample space for a gym- nasium, which, with the proximity of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers and the new Athletic Field, will afford excellent opportunities for physical exercise, and supply advantages which even some country colleges do not enjoy. The streets intersecting the property have been closed by an Act of the Legislature, and, as there is no demand on the part of ad- joining property owners, and no probable cause for the opening of such streets, there is every reason to believe that the property will remain undivided. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Grant Monument are to be erected upon the same plateau and within a few blocks of the proposed site, and if Columbia should be enabled to develop the property to its full possibilities, the locality would become a part of the City which every stranger would visit and of which every citizen would be proud. These are the reasons, in brief, why the Committee have recommended to the Trustees the consideration of this par- ticular site. The financial aspects of the problem arc these: The price asked for the property is two million dollars. Against this sum the assets which appear to be available for the purchase are : First : The site now occupied by the College, bounded by Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets and Madison and Fourth Avenues, comprising a plot of ground about 400 by 200 feet, together with substantial buildings, which may be capable 8 of conversion by a purchaser to some other than the present use. Second : The piece of ground on the Westerly side of the Boulevard or Eleventh Avenue, in the neighborhood of 160th Street, and running Westerly to the new public drive, with two small irregular gores on the Westerly side of the public drive, comprising about one hundred and thirty city lots. Third : The bequest under the will of Mr. Fayerweather, of which $200,000 is payable absolutely ; in addition thereto the College is entitled to one tenth part of the residue after payments to various beneficiaries are made, the value of such residue being problematical. It is apparent that any estimate of the value of all this property must be largely conjectural. But, placing the highest estimate upon it, it would be insufficient to pay even the price asked for the land. That price is, however, but a portion of the expense necessary to be incurred in order to effect a removal of the College. The reserve funds now on hand, not included in the above estimate, are, it is believed, sufficient to pay the actual expenses of removing, including such changes as may be necessary to render the buildings upon the new grounds temporarily available for the pur- poses of the College. These buildings, at the best, would fall far short of providing for our necessities. Assuming that they could be temporarily used for purposes of admin- istration, for laboratories, class-rooms, and the like, it would still be necessary to erect a library, a building containing the larger lecture rooms needed for the work of the College, a chapel, a large hall or auditorium, and a gymnasium, and probably other buildings. Even if the chapel, auditorium, and gymnasium were for a time dispensed with, the cost of the essential new buildings would be very great, and the amount required must, in any event, be raised from some source to enable the College to carry out the proposed plan of removal. If the Fayerweather bequest be used in the manner indi- cated the Committee hope \t may be so arranged that, in 9 connection with a building, a quadrangle, or in some other similar way, Mr. Fayerweathers name may be perpetuated as one of the great benefactors of New York's historic uni- versity. When it is remembered that Columbia is but one hundred and thirty-seven years old, and that universities reckon their lives by centuries, it is clear that such an asso- ciation will offer a most enduring and worthy memorial. To conclude : The Committee desire to make two points clear : First : That early removal is a necessity ; that a removal of the whole institution (except the Medical School) to some point upon Manhattan Island is the wisest course, and that the Bloomingdale site appears to offer exceptional advantages for our purposes. Second : That if Columbia is to secure this site, and is to proceed without interruption in her development as a uni- versity, she must have material help. If the living New York will touch with its vitalizing finger the endowments of the past, there lies before this city in the immediate future the prospect of possessing a university, of which not only New York will be proud, but which will become in time the pride and the satisfaction of the whole United States. Seth Low. Wm. C. Schermerhorn. Morgan Dix. George L. Rives. C. Vanderbilt. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 http://archive.org/details/statementofcommiOOcolu i j