MAIN BUILDING

Stood approximately in the same location as Beardshear Hall.

The first statement of intent to erect a college building is included in the First Annual Report of the Secretary of the Iowa State Agricultural College to the General Assembly of the State of Iowa for the years 1858 and 1859, as follows:

The President pro tempore and Chairman of the Executive Committee, has taken a good deal of pains in procuring a plan for a College building… We have not yet come to the conclusion whether we had better build our college in three separate buildings, one at a time, and far enough apart to be safe from fire from each other. This will be a matter for further consideration.

We have studied every way to economize the funds of the State, having all the time in view a good school rather than a display of architectural beauty, no costly dome, or curious winding stairs - but a solid stone foundation, a plain brick superstructure with four stories, with pilasters, dental brick cornice, projecting roof with brackets, with portico over the doors at each end: all of good respectable appearance, about good enough for the farmers of our state, and good enough for anybody else. For further details you are referred to the plans and specifications prepared by Mr. Milens Burt, of Muscatine, architect and builder, a prudent, judicious, and excellent mechanic, and a man of much care and prudence in all things.

We have had a good deal of deliberation in regard to building three or four stories, 120 x 42 feet. To get the same accomodations [sic] with three stories, must extend the length to 150 feet, at an additional cost of $1,500 to $2,000. We think the convenience of the building will well pay for the change, if the State can afford it.

The cost of this building is estimated at $30,000, without stoves, furnaces, or steam for warming; of sufficient size to accomodate [sic] 100 students, a President and his family, two or three Professors, lecture and recitation rooms, library and reading rooms, etc.; and in the basement, store rooms, pantries, steward’s rooms, kitchen, dining room, homes, lodging and boarding for 120 persons.

It has required much time and effort and skill to arrange all of this in one convenient building.

It was not until the spring of 1864, after the financial stress of the Civil War, that funds became available to start construction of the building. At that time Mr. John Browne was retained as architect at a fee of five percent of the cost of the building. Presumably he prepared new plans. There is no mention at this period of the earlier plans by Milens Burt. In July bids were received and contracts awarded for certain work:

Excavation - W.J. Graham, 24 1/2 cents per yard

Stonework - Scott & Kerney, $6 per perch of 25 feet and 70 per foot for cut stone, door, and window sills

Brick - Chamberlin & Co. $5.85 per thousand

Problems soon began to develop. Mr. Browne failed to obtain the contractor’s signature for timber and failed to provide adequate plans for the excavator or stonework contractor to work from, creating delays in completion past the contract date of September. Browne was discharged that month by the Building Committee, an action subsequently sustained by the Board of Trustees. He was paid a total of $350.

Brick which had been ordered was found to be unusable because of too much lime gravel which burst the brick. As a whole, the work of 1864 had to be completely removed and a new start made the following spring.

A new architect, Charles A. Dunham, of Burlington, was employed in February 1865. His report to the Board, written in November and recorded in the January 1866 minutes summarizes the 1865 operations and his changes from the Browne plans:

On the first day of February 1865, I received the appointment as Architect of the College Building from Hon. W.H. Holmes, Chairman of the Executive Committee. In his letter to me he suggested that the form and dimensions of the lecture room might be greatly improved, and authorized me to make any other improvements in the original plans, which I might deem beneficial curtailing the cost whenever it could be done without injury to the convenience and general appearance to the Building.

Upon inspection of the original drawings it was found that the Lecture Room was in such a form that would be impossible to use it for the purpose for which it was intended. There was no place to put the speakers stand so that what he was talking about could be heard understandingly half way across the room and it could not be seated so as to accommodate one fourth of the number of scholars with a full attendance.

The staircases came next under my observation found them to be one half the usual width of stairs in buildings of this and similar classes. They were arranged in the worst form conceiveable. I enlarged that part of the building and put in two good broad staircases easy of ascent and decent [sic] and giving by the arrangements two more external doors to the rear of building.

The Library and Laboratory were next taken in hand. Upon inspection of the original plans you will find four small rooms where there are but two in the plans now presented. As Chemistry is one of the most important studies to be taught in the institution I concluded that it should have as large a room as could be made for it without changeing [sic] its location or increasing the size of the building. The same might be said of the Library.

The towers were found to be of great size and out of proportion to the balance of the building at the external angles of the towers there were long meaningless buttresses looking like strangers in a strange place. The dimensions of the towers were diminished seven feet each on the ground which will reduce the cost considerably.

The buttresses were discarded, also the large balconies of a costly character and workmanship. These were to be constructed of wood liable to decay in a few years, unless given the best attention with paint and brush and the use of them is more than I am able to discover. They certainly could not have been intended for ornament; if so it was a bad intention. In the northeast tower the construction of two of its sides was found to be most remarkable. Some 16 feet in height was intended to be a truss without any mechanical principle of construction being properly applied to resist the load which it was designed to sustain. I doubt very much whether it would sustain its own weight any considerable time.

The walls will now receive their support from iron columns. All of these changes were made in the plans and submitted on the 22nd day of February 1865, to the building committee at the College Farm and on that day I saw what had been done the year previous on the College building. The foundation walls were about one fourth built, some were up their full height, they were covered in on the top with straw and well protected around this basis. The walls looked very good what could be seen of them. There were a few slight fractures which I could not account for at the time but which will be accounted for hereafter. Met with the Committee and the changes were discussed.

Mr. Melendy suggested that there should be a Museum room close to the lecture rooms where anatomical and other specimens should be kept close at hand to be readily introduced upon the lecturers stand whenever wanted to illustrate and convey more forcibly the ideas of the lecturer. For arrangement of room see plans accompanying this report.

The next and most important change was the abandonment of the system of heating the building by steam which would cost not less than thirty thousand dollars, three fifths of the estimated cost of the entire building, besides the entailment of a heavy expense annually. A first class engineer would have to be employed to attend to it, one who could do the necessary repairs or other wise in case of a derangement of its proper working or bursting of pipes, etc. There would have to be a Machinist from some city to do the necessary repairs, while the whole school might be left in a very cool condition for some length of time. Mr. Melendy advocates the system of warming the building by hot air furnaces on the principle of great economy and yearly savings to the institution and it was approved by the other members of the committee.

In making excavations for the furnace cellars, it became necessary to take down some of the walls that were built and then the cause of the fractures was discovered.

It appears that the excavations for the cellar and foundation walls had been made just the size that the building was to have been. The contractors made single faced walls using the best stone on the inner face where it would show their work to the best advantage. In many places the walls were several inches thicker at the top than they were at the base. Those parts of the wall between the bank and the inside cover of Stone were found to be filled with all kind of Stone rubbish, occasionally bedded in mortar composed of sand and loam. If there was any lime in its composition my eyes failed to discover it. You all know that it requires the best wall where it has the greatest weight to sustain. The walls referred to were exactly the reverse, and let me say to you, there never could have been a brick wall twelve inches thick built upon it two stories in height without its falling down or fracturing so badly that it would have to be taken down, and it was of such bad workmanship and partly of such bad materials that it had to be rebuilt this past season and now in place of theirs you have good substantial double-faced walls built true to a line, on both sides well bonded and tied together.

In the original plans there was no provision made for the thorough ventilation of the rooms. The plans now submitted the rooms are designed to be ventilated as follows. Opposite to where the warm air is admitted into the rooms, registers will be placed in the floors of the same size as those that admit the warm air opening to flues in the walls which will lead the vitiated air to the roofs, it will then be thrown off through ejectors. There will be small registers placed near the line of the ceiling in each room opening into the flues above mentioned.

A few other items I wish to say a few words about in regard to the defects in the original plans. The author of the specifications says the principal roof must be covered with Slate but the towers and dormer windows are to be covered with pine boards not exceeding ten inches in width and their joints covered with moulded battens three inches wide. A style of finish not much used on public buildings in this country to my knowledge. The sashes to the dormer windows could only be raised about five inches to admit air, which would make the attic rooms anything but desireable study or sleeping apartments on a hot summer day or night.

The cornice of the building was to have been of the most elaborate design and workmanship and of a style wholly unsuited to a building of this character. The elevations are so different in design that it is, almost impossible to believe that they were for the same building, in fact it would be impossible to work them up together, nor do they agree with the story plans. The second section of form of roofs was not developed in the drawings, or referred to in the specifications. The form of the roofs was to be of a very expensive kind requiring two sets of timbers. This has been made straight in the design accompanying, useing [sic] but one set of timbers. There was but one external door on the principal floor plan, now there are three.

I trust that you will excuse me for this going into details but I wished to be thoroughly understood in the reasons for changes being made. A few words about the brick making and the present conditions of the works and then I am through. The Brick that were made in the year 1864 were good solid bricks but were filled with lime pebbles and when the rains came in contact with them and afterwards the frost, the lime in the pebbles slacked and burst to pieces destroying them for facings for the building, but they will answer every purpose for the interior walls. On the 22nd day of February 1865 the Building Committee received propositions from several brickmakers and finally made a contract with S.A. Robertson of Des Moines who has moved to be master of his profession to make one million of brick, the number necessary to complete the building. After looking over the ground I directed him to make a new yard and use the top soil instead of the bank clay which was used the year previous and the institution has been well paid by so doing. They will have a superior quality of brick, the best I have seen west of the Mississippi River. There are now made 850,000. The stone foundations walls are one foot above the final grade line over eight hundred perch having been built the last summer. They have all been covered in and the premises properly graded. Accompanying this will be found detailed estimates of costs for erecting and completing the balance of the work on the building. Accompanying this estimate will be the drawings as now approved by the Committee. These estimates are taken and based upon quantities measured on the plans, and drawings by a builder of large experience. The cost of workmanship and materials has been ascertained with great labor and considerable trouble. All of which is very respectfully submitted.

Your obediant servant,

C.A. Dunham,
Architect Iowa Agl. College Building
Burlington Iowa, Nov. 22nd, 1865

During 1865 and the spring of 1866 the foundations were completely rebuilt and most of the basement finished. On June 25, 1866 a contract was signed with Jacob Reichard for completion of the building. About the same time an agreement was executed with Dunham for preparing plans and specifications and for superintending construction. The construction contract called for the building to be completed by the first day of October 1867. That was not accomplished. Delays were caused by harsh weather, difficulties in getting materials and lack of adequate appropriations.

The question of how the building would be heated was still being debated in May of 1868. The Building Committee was in favor of a steam system, but after learning that would cost considerably more than the available fund they contracted for a warm air heating and ventilating installation, the patented Ruttan System. The contractor, W.S. Pennal & Co. of Normal, Illinois

proposed to warm the building to at least 65 degrees Farenheit [sic] during the coldest weather for six thousand five hundred dollars on condition that the committee would make changes in the building as were then pointed out… The work ordered …has been completed according to their instructions and we are sorry to say the building has not yet been sufficiently warmed to meet the requirements of the contract. We understand their agent has been at the building and ordered more furnaces with a view to a full compliance with their contract.¹

In the same report the Building Committee stated that they had procured a bell, installed in the belfry, and had provided a water supply for the building from a dug well about 300 yeards west of the building with a windmill to provide power to force the water through a two-inch pipe to the building, with smaller pipes conveying water through the building. At the same time a gas works was built outside the building with gas piped into the rooms for lighting.

The College Building was dedicated on March 17, 1869, with appropriate addresses by state dignitaries. The president was inaugurated and the new College was formally initiated.

The building was described by the architect, C.A. Dunham, as follows:

The outline of the ground plan is that of the letter E, one hundred and fifty-six feet in length by seventy feet in width, through wings which are so arranged that they can be extended at any future time as may be desired. The building is five stories in height - first story nine feet, second story fourteen feet, third and fourth stories twelve feet, attic story ten feet six inches. Forty-two feet of the central portion of principal front projects seven feet, with a veranda ten feet in width. At the ends of the principal front there are two towers twenty-one feet square, projecting four feet from face of main walls. The principal tower rises to the height of one hundred and thirty-six feet, and at the elevation of one hundred feet there is a bell turret, with projecting balconies on the four sides, to accommodate those who wish to view one of the most beautiful prairie landscapes in the west. The principal story is gained by ascending a flight of stone steps of ample dimensions, landing upon the veranda heretofore mentioned. After passing through the entrance doors, which open into a hall eight feet in width, to the right is the reception room, sixteen feet by twenty-four feet; chamber, sixteen by sixteen feet, with ample closet room. Opposite these rooms is the library, eighteen feet by forty, located in the central part of the building. There is a corridor of ample width running through the center of the building and wings in each story. After leaving the library room, turning to the left, on the right side of the corridor, is located the museum, eighteen by fifty-two feet, which is fitted with cases and shelves for specimens. Returning back to the halls, to the right is the entrance to the lecture-room, which is in the north wing of the building, thirty four by fifty feet, with seats around on the arcs of circles, radiating from the lecturer’s stand. In the rear of the lecturer’s stand is a doorway communicating with the museum, for the more ready introduction of anatomical and other specimens upon the lecturer’s desk and stand. It is the design to have around the walls of this room a series of pictures, painted in oil, representing scenes in the life of the agriculturist and the arts and sciences. Retracing our steps, we return to the corridor and approaching the library, to the right and on each end of the library room there will be found the two principal staircases, eight feet in width, circular in form, incased in two octagon towers leading from the basement to the attic story. Further on down the corridor is to be found the recitation rooms. At the ends of the veranda, on the principal front, stepping down four steps into an area of nearly the width of the veranda the principal entrance to the basement story, is found halls and corridors running the same as those described in the principal story. After passing through the doorway to the left is the steward’s room; to the right is the laboratory, and adjoining is the bathroom. At the end of the long corridor, entrance is to be had to the dining room which is thirty-three feet by forty feet. Passing on through the dining room, to the left is to be found the kitchen, twenty by twenty four feet, fitted with range, sink, pump and boiler. Opening out of the kitchen is a doorway leading to cellar below, and another door leads to a pantry for dishes, with communication with dining room. Further along is to be found a scullery and store room of ample size. There is a door from the kitchen communicating with steps in the area to exterior. Returning to the long corridor, and passing by one flight of principal stairs, and opening the door on the right hand, can be found the laboratory, a room eighteen by thirty-six, with closets and other fixtures. This is but a temporary location for the laboratory, as it is the intention to put up a building somewhat isolated from the main building for that purpose. Further along, passing the other staircase and turning to the right, are to be found the wash-rooms, sixteen by twenty-two feet. Opposite is the laundry, sixteen feet by twenty two, and at one end of the laundry is the dry-room, fourteen by sixteen feet. In front of these rooms, and running parallel with the front, is to be found four large servants’ rooms and one large room for the housekeeper. There are five external doors in this story, four leading out of the corridors, and one out of the kitchen.

Ascending either of the flights of stairs, and landing in the principal corridor of the third story, can be found in the rear of the central portion of the building and over the library room the armory, sixteen by eighteen feet, opposite the cabinet room, sixteen by eighteen feet. Returning and passing down the corridor either way can be found professors’ and recitation rooms, fifteen by eighteen feet, and twenty-one students’ rooms, four teen by sixteen feet each.

The fourth and fifth stories are nearly the same as the third, each story containing thirty rooms, each ten feet by fourteen feet, and two recitation rooms, each fourteen feet by twenty. There is a cellar seven feet high under the dining room, kitchen, laboratory, and corridors. Also fuel vaults in rear of cellar under laboratory. The building is heated with eight hot-air furnaces., Opposite to where the warm air is admitted into the rooms there is a register of the same capacity as that of the warm air register, to draw off the vitiated air downwards by flues built in the hollow core of the walls. There is also a small register near the ceiling line, for summer ventilation, opening into flues which will conduct it to the summit of the roofs. The basement story is faced up with cut-stone seven feet above the ground. The walls above are built of brick. Cut-stone dressings to the doors and windows, with string and belt courses of the same. The roof is of the Mansard style, covered with slates in two patterns. The roof of the centre portion of the building is made to rise at a more acute angle, to give the principal entrance more prominence, and to give a more pleasing sky outline. All the openings have circular heads. The east, north, and south sides stand upon a terrace extending out 100 feet from the walls of the building. The outer edge of the terrace is some five feet above the natural formation of the earth. The terrace will have two fountains and other appropriate decorations.²

It did not take long to outgrow the College Building. At the January 1870 meeting of the Trustees President Welch asked for additions to it and also for other buildings. He proposed that two wings be built extending west from the existing structure. He knew precisely what was needed and specified how those wings would be used:

The extension of the south wing would furnish 1st a basement 35 x 50 feet for a laundry adequate to the wants of the college.

2nd the first two floors above the basement 35 x 50 feet for the library, the upper one to be used as a gallery.

3rd the next two floors above (3 story attic) of the same dimension for a museum, the attic to be used as a gallery.

These public rooms would be accessible, spacious and every way adequate.

The extension of the north wing 50 feet would enable us 1st to enlarge the dining room in the basement to such dimensions that it would seat 350 pupils.

2nd to extend the present Chapel so that it would be large enough to seat an audience of 600.

3rd to get three ample recitation rooms in each of the two stories immediately above the enlarged Chapel.

4th to construct a room for practice in drawing 35 feet square in the attic.

All these public rooms would be accessible from the inside through the halls in the corresponding stories and from the outside through a hall running across the west end of the extended wings. I am of the opinion that the-kitchen should be in a small separate building.

The extension of these wings as contemplated in the original draft will give symmetry and completeness to the entire building and furnish just the public space we need, neither more nor less.

The 13th General Assembly appropriated funds for the proposed wings and in May 1870 the Trustees instructed the Building Committee to proceed to obtain plans and enter into construction contracts for the project. Five bids were received and the contract awarded to Fawcett & Bro., the low bidder, for $39,475. This did not include heating which was let under a separate contract to Pennal & Co. for $4,000. By May 1872 the wings were completed and associated changes made in the original building.

Maintenance and repairs created problems and costs before the Main building had served very many classes. By 1875 it became necessary to replace the warm air heating system with a steam system. The inadequacy of the old plant is summarized in the 6th Biennial Report (1874-75):

As a means of warming the main college building the Rutan furnaces were purchased and put in eight years ago. During the storms and high winds that occur frequently in the spring and fall these furnaces have proved entirely inadequate. Indeed, both officers and students and especially the young ladies, have suffered not a little from the failure to warm the building in cold weather. They are now worn out and many of them are cracked; the brick work that surrounds them is crumbling, and the timbers directly overhead have become so seasoned by hot air that any further use of these furnaces is extremely perilous to the building.

At the same time other repairs on the building were needed:

Thorough repairs of the College building cannot be longer delayed. Serious defects in its structure require immediate remedy. The walls of the north tower are of brick and seem to be settling from a lack of adequate support. Some means must be found for strengthening the pillars on which the inner angle of these walls rests. When the north wing was extended, in 1871, the outer wall of the old wing, to which the extension was joined, was left standing in two upper stories, but was removed in the lower story to make room for the lengthened chapel. Two iron columns were substituted for the wall so displaced and the whole weight of the wall above made to rest on these columns and on the lateral wall on either side. Several wide fissures in the superincumbent wall give unmistakable evidence that the means of support are insufficient… There is moreover, a pressing need that the outside woodwork, such as cornice, frieze, window frames, and sashes, should be re-painted. The first painting was done eight years ago, and all outside wood finishings being now nearly bare, are exposed to the danger of immediate decay. The whole interior wood-work of the building, with the exception of the library and a few rooms, also need graining, and some very thorough means should be put in and the conductors made secure and perfect. All these repairs …are urged not only for the comfort of those who occupy the building, but as a measure of sound economy to the state.³

R.S. Finkbine, the architect who had inspected the building, estimated the total cost of a new heating plant and the necessary repairs outlined at $31,720.

Bids for the “Steam Heating Apparatus” were received in May 1876 and contract was awarded to Haxtun Steam Heater Co., Kewanee, Illinois. About the same time other contracts were entered into: for engine house and cistern, Peter Raff & Son; for exterior painting, R.A. Wilson; for general interior repairs, the Mechanical department of the College; for tin work, Wright Little of Ames. By August Dr. C. Warden, Supt. of Repairs, was able to report:

The work has progressed very favorably and has been done in thorough and substantial manner, nearly all of the contracts, including that for putting in the heating apparatus will be completed by the first of September.

The labor of removing the old furnaces and cleaning out the sub cellar was performed by students as well as taking down the brick wall, cleaning brick, etc. Much other labor during the summer vacation was given to students who for want of means to return to their homes were obligated to remain here. The taking up the air ducts and refilling with dirt and cleaning brick; the painting of the building, putting in stone keys and caps, taking out brick and rebuilding walls; removal of bell tower etc. was let to Peter Raff & Son. ⁴

Students were aware of the repairs made. The Aurora for April 1877 recorded:

The plasterers and painters have been busily at work during the winter, and so improved the appearance of the rooms and halls that we could scarcely recognize the place as being the one we left last fall… One of the very noticeable improvements in our college this term, is the reading room, since it has been repainted, it is now a model of convenience and attractiveness.

In 1882 (April 8) a small tornado seriously damaged the south tower of Old Main as well as South and North Halls. The State Executive Council appropriated $1,500 from the Providential Contingent Fund for repairs.

Electric lights were installed in Main in the fall of 1884. The contract with Edison Electric Light Co. provided for “250 ten candle Edison incandescent lamps placed on suitable fixtures or attachements as you may direct and connect with a two hundred ten candle light Edison dynamo to be placed in your machinery department and connect the same by suitable belting and counter shafting to your present steam plant so that it will operate properly.” ⁵ The work was accepted and paid for in December.

Separate, but connected, towers on the west end of each wing of the College building were built in 1888 for restrooms, greatly improving the sanitary conditions.

Minor repairs and repainting continued to be needed. The next major changes came when the library, museum, and chapel were moved to Morrill Hall. This remodeling provided rooms for an additional 54 students in Main. Relocation of the dining hall to Margaret Hall in 1895 made space for “additional recitation and recreation room for the students.”⁶

Concern had developed about the structural condition of the towers and an architect, George E. Hallett was employed to inspect them. At the November 1897 Board meeting it is reported that “He reports the walls are safe, for the present, but that careful measurements should be made and recorded as to their movements; that none of the settling is of recent occurrence; that the south tower is a solid square brick structure while the north tower is a frame in its interior construction.”

A new roof was installed on the boiler room in September 1900 and the boilers were cleaned the following month.

Tragedy struck the Main about 3:30 in the morning of December 8, 1900, when fire, starting in the boiler room quickly spread to the north staircase and very soon the entire north tower and north wing were in flames, forcing most students to abandon practically all of their property as they fled from the building. With help from the Boone fire department the fire was brought under control before the center section was entirely destroyed and before it reached the south tower and south wing.

The ISC students reported some humorous incidents: “Dr. Pammel’s bottomless office chair was saved.” “Mr. __ carried Miss__’s flat iron down stairs and tossed her china bric-a-brac from the window.”

The condition of the building following the fire was described by the State Architect, H.F. Liebbe, in a letter dated Dec. 19, 1900, to the Board of Trustees:

Having this day made an inspection of remains of the burned main building I beg to report as follows:

First. I find that the north wing is entirely destroyed and the rebuilding of this wing is wholly out of the question.

Second. I find further that the attic story of the center section is also wholly destroyed and much of the interior of said central section is also destroyed: that is the floors and wood partitions, doors, and windows are practically all destroyed but the brick walls stand erect and are safe.

Third. I also find that the attic and roof of the adjacent south wing are damaged to a considerable extent - which can however be repaired. I also find that the now remaining south wing is quite generally damaged by smoke and water, and other damage incident to a fire such as broken doors, window, etc.

Fourth. I find also that the boiler room roof was entirely consumed and in my judgement was the source of the fire.

Recommendations. As the part that remains is only too poor to much longer serve its purpose being old - walls badly cracked on all sides, and badly out of line, with wooden floors badly settled and out of level and all finish severly worn with many years use, I cannot advise the rebuilding of the destroyed wing at any time. The best that can now be done is to finish the central part with a flat gravel roof, and refitting with doors, and windows, and such restoration of floors as will be necessary when all rubbish is removed; also replastering and such other repairs as will be necessary to make this part tenantable, together with general renovation and repair of the whole south wing, so that the repaired structure will serve for a brief time as a temporary domicile for the students. But all this should be done in an inexpensive manner, for whatever money is thus expended will serve no useful purpose beyond affording needed temporary relief.

The remnants of standing walls north of center section should of course be torn down and all useless debris removed.

Those recommendations were followed and the remaining portion of the building was made useable. At the same time Emergency Hall was built.

The college had scarcely recovered from the shock of the first fire when disaster struck a second time. On the morning of August 14, 1902 fire again broke out and demolished the south wing of Old Main. Fortunately the botanical collection and most of the furniture was saved. Arson was suspected but never proved.

The brick and stone from the burned building was used to pave the college drives and the other usable material was salvaged for repair work in other buildings. It was spring of the following year before all of the debris could be cleaned up.

For just a third of a century Old Main served Iowa State College.

The contract for the new Central Building (Beardshear Hall) was awarded in May 1903.