of Michigan, when we shall have provided an Astronomer worthy of the Observatory we are thus furnishing" (P.R., 1853, p. 6).
This conversation, with its oversanguine reference to Michigan skies, illustrates President Tappan's just personal pride in the project, which he frequently referred to as "our noble Observatory." In his well-known "Historic Statement" just at the close of his administration he wrote: "I cannot speak of the Observatory without emotion. No one will deny that it was a creation of my own."
In Ann Arbor, the committee on the Observatory site met with difficulty. Evidently its members, the Honorable Elon Farnsworth, the Honorable Henry N. Walker, and Professor Silas H. Douglass, did not unanimously approve "the center of the University grounds."
A special meeting of the Board of Regents in July, 1853, was called to decide the question, but a quorum was lacking. The members present visited the proposed country hilltop, then outside the limits of Ann Arbor, discussed the proposition, and adjourned without formal action. However, an agreement was evidently reached. At the November meeting purchase of the balance of the site was authorized, including four acres from the land of a Mr. Benham at $100 per acre. The earliest Catalogue to describe the Detroit Observatory contained the statement: "It is situated half a mile from the University grounds on a hill 150 feet above the Huron river, from which is presented one of the most charming views of the country."
Another difficulty was encountered. The enlargement of the original plan incurred unforeseen expenses. After the return of President Tappan two collimators (small telescopes to adjust the meridian circle) were added to the order of Pistor and Martins at a cost of $375. Other auxiliary instruments were needed.
Another subscription campaign in Detroit in May, 1854, resulted in twenty-three gifts, totaling only $1,150, but President Tappan, backed by Walker and other friends, pushed the project, and in July, 1854, when the new Director arrived, the building was nearly finished. It was soon ready for the arrival of the instruments. The attractive setting, as it then appeared, has been preserved in the famous oil painting made by J. F. Cropsey in 1855, from which an engraving was prepared for the Catalogue of 1855-56. The original painting is now in the University's possession, a gift from the Honorable Andrew D. White.
The superintendent of grounds and buildings was authorized to purchase lumber and enclose the site with a plain substantial fence. A committee applied to the city council to secure the construction of roads to the Observatory. In 1856 the mayor again brought up the question of roads, and the need was soon met in country fashion by a new turnpike.
The Observatory building was soon ready to occupy. (The history of the development and activities of the Observatory staff, except for the construction of new instruments, is omitted from this article. See Part III: Department of Astronomy.) The central part is thirty-three feet square, and there are two wings, each nineteen by twenty-nine feet. The central part is surmounted by a revolving dome twenty-one feet in diameter and contains the pier for the large refractor. The pier extends fifteen feet below the surface and is constructed of solid masonry, twenty-two feet in diameter at the base and six feet at the top, where it is capped by a large circular limestone quarried at Sandusky, Ohio. This carries a vertical limestone monolith, which supports the iron pier cap. The center of motion of the instrument is about thirty-three feet above ground
