"normal

of Dix and the Regents, it passed an act providing for a department" in one academy in each of eight judicial districts. Sharp disagreements and futile efforts at the unification of the dual system of school administration were in the air even then. In 1839 Massachusetts received a gift which induced her to set up the first state normal school upon an independent footing in the country. Public opinion gradually came to the support of this plan, and in five years the New York Legislature decided to try it in cooperation with the other which had theretofore been adopted as the exclusive policy of the Empire State. In 1844 the first normal school of the state, under whose splendid new roof we meet today, was established.

In the succeeding half century, ten similar state schools were established, and with them a system of city training schools. The training classes which had been introduced into the academies had been many times multiplied and carried into one or more union schools in nearly every county. All these, in connection with new pedagogical departments in the colleges and universities and with our uniform system of examining teachers, comprise a comprehensive plan for securing capable teachers which is quite unique in American education.

At the beginning the state appropriated $10,000 for the normal school upon the understanding that the city of Albany would provide a building, and in the following summer the city placed at its service for five years the building between State street and Maiden Lane, just east of Eagle street, which had recently been vacated by the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company. It has been remodeled several times, but some of the original building remains. It is now known as Van Vechten Hall. The city paid $1000 per year for five years for rent, and $500 toward preparing the building for use. The state paid over $3000 to get the place in condition. Even that was better for the state than is usual when the state and a city undertake to share expenses. The school was opened December 18, 1844. Tuition and books were free, and board was nearly so. Male pupils were paid one dollar per week, and female pupils one dollar and a half per week, to induce attendance. None will dispute the propriety of the discrimination. Twenty-nine students came at the beginning, and before the close of the term there were one hundred.

In 1848 the lot at the corner of Lodge and Howard streets was secured for a permanent building, and the state appropriated $25,ooo for the very spacious structure, with flights of stairs that were

as long and steep as ladders, which was used from 1849 to 1885. The records tell us that two plans were prepared, that one was more ornamental and required $700 more than the other, and that the more ornamental and costly was taken. This building is now owned by the Roman Catholic Church and is occupied by the Christian Brothers Academy. I myself sold the same to the present owners at public auction, at the front door of the Albany City Hall, on March 6, 1886, pursuant to section 1 of chapter 280, Laws of 1885. In January 1883, the present vice chancellor, Dr McKelway, and I had become members of the board in charge of the school, and at the first meeting we heard the statement that the walls were out of plumb, that the building was cracked and in danger of falling, but that little must be said of it lest the attendance of pupils might be affected. Refusing the custody of such an exclusive and cheerful secret, we drew a resolution for the Senate, directing the finance committee to inquire and report as to the safety of the old building. In a few days the committee, upon the advice of a firm of Albany architects and the chief engineer of the Albany fire department, reported that the building was menaced by quicksand and that the walls had settled and cracked; that "there is no immediate danger of a catastrophe, but that danger is inevitable at an uncertain time in the future unless measures are taken to avert it." That was twenty-seven years ago, but even yet the old building looks us right in the face and stands up bravely for education.

The measure to avert the possible "catastrophe" appropriated $125,000 for a new site and building. The site on Willett street was picked out of a dozen that were offered. The building there erected was much criticized. Its external architecture was commonplace, though not specially bad, and its internal arrangement was intolerable. But the president of the school and two of the five members of the board had trained me to think as they did in earlier days in the Albany Academy, and continued it even then. I fear Dr McKelway had no such excuse. When, from my front porch, I saw that ill formed and ill fated schoolhouse go heavenward in flame and smoke, on that keen winter evening in January 1906, I was as officially affected as was proper, but my personal grief was not of the kind which is altogether uncontrollable. It surely would have been greater, however, could all the troubles over plans for the new buildings have been foreseen.

The Legislature of 1906 appropriated $350,000, with an unexpended appropriation for additional land on Madison avenue amounting to some $17,000, together with the insurance upon the

The

old building amounting to $75,000, for the new structures. act authorized an exchange of sites: that is why we are here rather than at the other end of our beautiful park. It authorized “a fireproof building or buildings": that is why there are four of them. It provided that the plans should be prepared by the State Architect, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Education and the trustees in charge of the college: that is why these particular buildings are here.

The site which we occupied on Willett street was never sufficient, and more room was needed. We had for several years been acquiring separate adjoining parcels of land on Madison avenue, with a view to securing all of them, but as our purpose was divined the remaining lots came to possess about as much value in the minds of the owners as if there were a gold mine or a well of oil under them. The prospect was not encouraging, for, aside from the cost, the situation was not well suited to our purposes. Then a fortunate opportunity presented itself. The Albany Orphan Asylum had occupied the site where we now are for more than eighty years. At the beginning it was out in the country, but the city had grown up around it so that it was not as well adapted to the purposes of the asylum as it had been, and it had acquired a value which the trustees of the asylum wished to convert into better buildings upon a less expensive site at the outskirts of the city. An exchange of properties was effected. The trustees of the asylum took our old site and sold it, and conveyed this site to us in consideration of a difference of $75,000, and then acquired their new site at the southern end of Lake avenue, and erected their beautiful new buildings. It was an arrangement very satisfactory to all the parties in interest, and manifestly for the good of the college, the asylum, and the city.

Using the amount received from insurance to secure this more eligible site, we had about $367,000 for new buildings. The Legislature thought the appropriation very liberal, but it was evident enough from the beginning that to secure the needed space and accommodations, we would have to dispense with costly or ornamental construction. Yet it was as necessary that we have attractive buildings as spacious ones. The time is here when one who has anything to do with the erection of a public building is bound to see that it is architecturally effective as well as practically useful; and one who permits the erection of a public building, and particularly a conspicuous state school building, without assuring good architecture and without making the most of the opportunity to promote the

interests of art among the people, deserves nothing but censure for his ignorance or his indifference.

There was much trouble and delay about agreeing upon plans for the new buildings. Possibly the story ought to have been placed in a cornerstone of the building, and quite as likely it is one of the things which it is as well to have forgotten. Certainly there is no occasion to repeat it now; and there would have been no reason to mention it but for the inconvenience and distress which it inflicted upon this institution for a number of recent years.

In the midst of the delay there was one episode which may well be mentioned and ought to be instructive to young men. In the summer of 1906, when the scheme for the architectural competition upon the State Education Building was being developed, Mr Albert R. Ross, a young architect, came into the Education Department and showed me photographs of several beautiful and striking buildings which he had designed. His words were modest and

He made an impression. Six months later, when the issue over the designs for the Normal College buildings had become sharp and we were almost at the end of our resources, I wrote Mr Ross that I could guarantee him no definite employment or compensation, but appealed to his patriotism and professional spirit to come and see if he could help us. His home was in New York, but the next morning he called me by telephone from Boston, thanked me for the mere opportunity to aid us, and said he would be here on the following day for whatever he could do. I showed him the designs of the Woman's Building at the University of Illinois, and colored prints of the front elevations of the main buildings of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. These were all by the New York architects, McKim, Mead and White. To my gratification, he told me he had helped design the plans for the University of Virginia and was in love with them. He thought the architecture admirably adapted to our situation and needs. He studied the site and said he would give us a sketch in two weeks. It came on schedule time and was highly pleasing to all the members of our board. It represented these buildings essentially as they stand today. Discussion led to minor changes, and in two weeks more he brought us a beautiful finished sketch, which has now been exactly executed. But before the Ross designs could be adopted, the whole matter had to have the final arbitrament of the legislative committees, and it had to have, as it did have, the helpful aid of Comptroller Martin H. Glynn.

The interior plans were worked out most acceptably by President Milne and State Architect George A. Heins, and the supervision of construction was under the competent care of Mr Franklin B. Ware, who succeeded to the office of State Architect upon the very regrettable death of Mr Heins.

It would be wholly unjust to omit to say that no such large work was ever executed with less friction between owners and contractors. The A. E. Stephens Company, of Binghamton, have done their work without bluster or complaint. The changes from the plans were very few, and the contractors were at all times anxious to help us realize our highest expectations. There is satisfaction in the feeling that we have buildings which we can like, and that the state has its money's worth without having had to use a big stick or go to the courts to get what belonged to it. And if the contractors have gained the reasonable profit to which their work entitles them, all concerned will be heartily glad of it.

As to the finances of this undertaking, we are upon strong ground. The garment was cut according to the cloth. There are no balances on the building account. We have used practically every dollar. There are and will be no deficiencies. The appropriation for furnishings and equipment was liberal and just. The enthusiastic faculty scheduled up a demand for $109,000. The Education Department asked for $50,000 and got it. The amount went through the legislative committees with only the ordinary pleading, and Governor Hughes approved it without frightening us, when it was well known that he was looking hard for things to veto. It has furnished the building with what it needs and supplied a good equipment for the teaching. It has put the walks and grounds in order, and for this a good German gardener is entitled to just as much credit as the rest of us. It has even topped everything out with a fine flagstaff and a beautiful flag,

"With the red for love

And the white for law

And the blue for the hope that our fathers saw
Of a larger liberty."

We turn our thoughts now from the building to the life of the school. This delightful situation and these beautiful and impressive buildings would seem a dream to us if we were willing to be dream

ers.

We have longed for them and waited doubtfully. We can hardly realize it all. But we are not dreamers: they are real. We