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We give below extracts from the report of the Executive Committee of the Annex, in which an appeal is made for funds to purchase a suitable recitation building to accommodate the large number of students expected next year.
"The educational success of the Harvard 'Annex' is now beyond all doubt, and its growth and progress make a public appeal in its behalf necessary. Not only has it justified the confidence of its friends, but it approves itself also more and more to those who were at first inclined to distrust it. The courses of study as well as the instruction and the examinations are substantially the same as those of Harvard College and, thanks to our professors and students, the standard of work has been admirably sustained throughout. As a result of this, the practical aims of the enterprise are more than fulfilled. The pupils who come to us simply from a love of study find what they seek, while such of our graduates as intend to teach readily obtain places in the best schools, and teachers of an older grade, who often join our classes for special studies, are cheered and encouraged by the new opportunities offered them.
We have obtained our higher ends, however, at the cost of comfort and convenience, our slender means having been expended upon the intellectual rather than the material needs of the institution. We have been crowded into four small hired rooms, never snfficient for our purpose either in point of space, ventilation, or general accommodation, and these rooms we have now wholly outgrown.
The applications now coming in for 1885 6, give promise of a larger number of students for the 'Annex' than it has ever before had, and yet it is impossible to receive more pupils in our present narrow quarters. In short, the vigorous growth of our undertaking places us in the most serious embarrassment. We have either to cramp its farther development or make provision for its increase.
Just at this critical moment, when a change of domicile seems a question of life or death, the residence of the late Judge Fay, well-known in Cambridge, is offered to us at a reasonable price. The house is substantially built of brick, and, while it is large enough to allow for the present growth of the institution, it is so situated that additions could readily be made if desirable. Although a private dwelling, it has that touch of dignity which belongs to an old-fashioned house; and it can easily be adapted to the more general purposes of an educational institution without losing the character of a home. It must, however, be understood that by a home is not meant a dormitory. Suitable lodgings are so easily found in private homes in Cambridge that any other arrangement is unnecessary.
The sum required for this purchase is $20,000. In spite of the hard times, we have thought it worth while to make this statement, being not without hope that among the many friends of education, some might be willing to help us in providing a suitable habitation, where our enterprise, so successfully begun, may find room for its natural growth and expansion."
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