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Virtual Historical Tour 24. McMillan Chemical Laboratory
A single donor, James McMillan, a United States Senator with no ties to Albion, presented the College in June of 1892 with the funds necessary to build a new Chemistry facility - a windfall that had been previously unheard of in College history. After legal squabbles concerning the feasibility of further western campus expansion, building of the McMillan Lab began in the winter of 1893. Construction of the Lab was completed by November of 1893, despite difficulties Senator McMillan had with making payments on his gift due to the Depression of 1893. (Fennimore, pp.295, 300-01, 304-05) At the dedication ceremony for laying the cornerstone of the Lab, President Fiske filled a copper box with items chosen by the entire College: a description of the new laboratory, contributions from each of the ten campus literary societies, copies of current issues of The Pleiad, the New Testament, the New York, Northwestern and Michigan Christian Advocates, The Epworth Herald and Handbook, The Albion Evening Recorder and The Mirror, a copy of the city charter, the college's YMCA constitution and membership list, and a program of the dedication events, complete with the autograph of Bishop H.W. Warren, the speaker for the occasion. The box was then sealed and placed in the cornerstone to await another generation... In January of 1970, the McMillan Chemical Laboratory was razed, assumingly due to, what was then, a brand new Science Complex. Click on thumbnail for larger view
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Albion College ◦ Albion, Michigan ◦ 517/629-10000
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The
original chemistry laboratory had been in North Hall and moved to the
ground floor of the Central Building previous to 1891. The Central
Building at that time also housed everything from the sciences and the
museum to the literary society rooms and a sorority hall. On January 6,
1892 a fire broke out in the chemistry lab, which, had it been
discovered five minutes later, could have easily taken down the entire
building. Because it was found quickly, there was minimal damage done to
the lab and only the hall of the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority was damaged
from smoke. But the threat of future fires spurred on the effort to
obtain the funds necessary to build a proper chemistry lab.
