ADDITION TO GORE HALL

Ground was broken yesterday for the foundations of an addition to the north side of Gore Hall, and work will be rapidly pushed ahead, so that the underground masonry may be finished before winter. The plans for this addition, which are by the firm of Warren & Smith, of Boston, have been under consideration for some time in regard to the expense. The contract with the contractors, Connery & Wentworth, was signed Tuesday afternoon.

The addition will run along the north side of the library, extending out about twenty-nine feet and will cut off two of the windows on the east side of the reading-room. These windows and also those in the present north side of the Hall will be left glazed so as to admit light into the inner rooms. The exterior of this addition has been designed to agree architecturally with the rest of Gore Hall and yet to harmonize a little more with the older buildings in the Yard. The material used in construction will be concrete blocks, and in color and general appearance it will closely resemble the granite of the original structure. The roof will be of copper, slanting off from the eaves of the older part and surrounded with a coping. There will be no buttresses and no towers, and the whole side will be plentifully lighted by numerous casement windows.

In the basement of the new structure will be several much needed stack-rooms. On the first floor there will be an extension of the delivery room to the whole width of the addition. On this floor also there will be a reference room, a room for the catalogue staff, a work-room and a shelf-department room extending, in the order mentioned, from the delivery room. On the second floor, over the delivery room, there will be a large room 53x26 feet for valuable books and manuscripts, and also a stenographers' gallery. In the centre will be a map and atlas room, additionally lighted through a skylight, and on the east end a class-room.

With the foundation work finished this fall, it is intended to have the building ready for use by the beginning of the next academic year.