belonging to the Institution will not be sufficient to accomplish these purposes, and the benevolent and liberal views of the Legislature without further aid.”
In July, 1800, the Trustees became possessed, by purchase, of the edifice that had been built by the State of Pennsylvania, on Ninth Street, between Chestnut and Market, for the accommodation of the President of the United States.[1] The acceptance of this building on the part of the General Government was declined by Mr. Adams, and as the government was soon afterwards removed to Washington City, the edifice was sold at auction, and purchased, with adjacent property, by the Trustees of the University. The cost of the edifice itself was twenty-four thousand dollars, and the expense was met by the sale of the south end of the old Academy in Fourth Street.
In 1800, at the time of opening the session, the Medical Faculty applied for accommodation in the building on Ninth Street, and in April, 1802, the Committee on the “New Building” reported that “they have the pleasure of announcing to the Board that all the schools, except the Charity School, were removed to the new University on Ninth Street. They have fitted up the west Bow Room in the second story for the Medical Schools, and if the Chemical Professor should desire a room for his chemical apparatus, he can be accommodated in the lower story.”
That this arrangement was not satisfactory is learned from the Minutes of the Medical Faculty, March 17, 1804.
“To the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, the petition of the Medical Professors in said University respectfully showeth: That from the late increase of medical students, amounting last winter to one hundred and fifty, the rooms in
- ↑ The following is from the “Pa. Gazette,” May 16, 1792: “On Friday last the Governor of this State laid the Corner Stone of the President’s House in Ninth Street. The inscription on the stone is—
This Corner Stone was laid
On the 10th day of May, 1792,
The State of Pennsylvania out of debt.
Thomas Mifflin, Governor.”The edifice was completed in 1797. It was commenced at the time Washington was President, and is said to have cost one hundred thousand dollars.
