the Annual Meeting. Appropriately enough, Stephen Gano, of Providence, at the request of the Executive Committee and on the strong recommendation of Nicholas Brown, gave the sermon, preaching from Isaiah, XXIX, 11, 12, “And the vision of all is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed….” His massive form, majestic appearance and powerful melodious voice held the attention of his hearers. Hascall, who followed him with an address “embracing a view of the providence of God which had conducted the Institution to its present elevation,” must have felt triumphant and at the same time humble as he related what had been achieved. Choral music of a “superior style” was interspersed throughout the program. A spirit of thanksgiving and devotion pervaded the audience as they realized what Hascall and his co-workers had accomplished. At noon members of the Education Society attended a dinner provided for them by the Executive Committee and in the afternoon were present at a meeting of the newly formed Society of Alumni and Friends, at which Gerrit Smith, the First Vice President, presided.
Commencement the next day tested the strength and seating capacity of the chapel. It was estimated that between two and three thousand people ‘packed themselves in for the occasion. Since the floors held, there was no fear of their giving way in the future. One observer described the room as follows:
The chapel occupies part of the third and fourth stories, with an arched ceiling similar to a well furnished meeting house. The whole of the fourth story is embraced in the chapel, and forms the gallery except about twenty feet on the west end, which is appropriated to rooms. The center room about twenty feet square, is designed for philosophical apparatus, and opens by folding doors on to the stage, or west gallery of the chapel, and forms, when opened, an admirable platform for the trustees and faculty to occupy at commencement. That part of the gallery appropriated to the stage is about 8 feet wide perhaps, and is finished with a railing in front, and commands a full view of the audience in the galleries, and also in the pit. That part of the chapel, which we call the pits the area between the galleries formed by a continuation of the panels, or walls in front of the galleries, down to the floor of the third story, excluding all that part of the third story under the galleries. This pit has seats ascending, with a platform and desk at one end, sufficiently large for all ordinary occasions of worship. It strikes one as templum in templo.*
* New York Baptist Register, June 16, 1827.