s changed by legislative act to Wellesley College.
Possibly visits to Vassar had had something to do with the change,
for Mr. and Mrs. Durant studied Vassar when they were making
their own plans.

And meanwhile, since the summer of 1871, the great house on the
hill above Lake Waban had been rising, story on story.

Miss Martha Hale Shackford, Wellesley, 1896, in her valuable
little pamphlet, "College Hall", written immediately after the fire,
to preserve for future generations of Wellesley women the traditions
of the vanished building, tells us with what intentness Mr. Durant
studied other colleges, and how, working with the architect,
Mr. Hammatt Billings of Boston, "details of line and contour
were determined before ground was broken, and the symmetry of
the huge building was assured from the beginning."

"Reminiscences of those days are given by residents of Wellesley,
who recall the intense interest of the whole countryside in this
experiment. From Natick came many high-school girls, on Saturday
afternoons, to watch the work and to make plans for attending the
college. As the brick-work advanced and the scaffolding rose
higher and higher, the building assumed gigantic proportions,
impressive in the extreme. The bricks were brought from Cambridge
in small cars, which ran as far as the north lodge and were then
drawn, on a roughly laid switch track, to the side of the building
by a team of eight mules. Other building materials were unloaded
in the meadow and then transferred by cars. As eighteen loads
of bricks arrived daily the pre-academic aspect of the campus was
one of noise and excitement. At certain periods during the
finishing of the interior, there were almost three hundred workmen."
A pretty story has come down to us of one of these workmen who
fell ill, and when he found that he could not complete his work,
begged that he might lay one more brick before he was taken away,
and was lifted up by his comrades that he might set the brick
in its place.

Mr. Durant's eye was upon every detail. He was at hand every day
and sometimes all day, for he often took his lunch up to the campus
with him, and ate it with the workmen in their noon hour. In 1874
he writes: "The work is very hard and I get very tired. I do
feel thankful for the privilege of trying to do something in
the cause of Christ. I feel daily that I am not worthy of such
a privilege, and I do wish to be a faithful servant to my Master.
Y