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Caption: Book - 16 Years (Edmund James)
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CHAPTER Vin CAMPUS PLANS Very few universities are so fortunate as to begin their work upon a campus the details of which have been scientifically worked out in advance. In the case of a majority, the choice of a site is largely determined by chance, and the subsequent growth is in the direction of least resistance. Every university, however, which has attained to a considerable size comes sooner or later to recognize the desirability of adopting and following a definite plan for its future expansion* In any such plan due regard must be had to considerations of necessity, convenience and beauty. As has already been indicated in an earlier chapter, the site of the University of Illinois was the gift of the people of Champaign County. From seven to ten acres constituted at first what might properly be called the campus, the remainder of the land being used for several years as a part of the University farm. One building had already been erected. It is encouraging to note that one of the first matters given attention by the original Board of Trustees was the enlargement of the campus by purchase of adjacent land, particularly that land which lay between the two principal parts of the University's holdings.1 The improvement of the grounds also received attention at an early date, and a plan of the campus published in the college catalog for 1871-72 (p. 16) shows a miniature forestry or arboretum occupying the tract between the street railway and Green Street. A few years later Burrill Avenue was laid out and trees were planted along it and upon a large part of the whole campus. It is certain that in the early years of the University's history it was generally expected that buildings other than those connected with the operation of the University farm would be erected only on the extreme northern part of the grounds. The selection of a site for University Hall in 1871 was the occasion a Cf. supra, Chapter II, p. 43. 193
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