Excerpt from The Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin

In the summers of 1907 and 1908 a beginning was made in grading the grounds of the Observatory after a plan designed by Olmsted Bros, of Brookline, Mass.

When this plan is completed and the planting has been carried out as proposed, an appropriate setting will be secured for the architecturally impressive building.

The Observatory was designed by Henry Ives Cobb, 'who carried out the plans drawn up by Professor Hale in a way that successfully combined architectural effect with scientific utility. The large Observatories Of Europe and America were Visited by Mr. Hale before the plans were begun; the most useful suggestions being received from the designs of the Lick Observatory and the Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam, Prussia. The style of the building is Romanesque with rather elaborate details. It is constructed Of brown Roman brick, with terra cotta ornaments to match. The shape is that of a Latin cross, with the three towers and the meridian room at the extremities. The long axis lies east and west, with the great tower' at the west, 92 feet in diameter. The entire length of the building in this direction is 326 feet. The two smaller domes are on the north and south axis, with their centers 144 feet apart.

The basement floor contains the instrument shop, the optical shop, a carpenter shop, a large physical laboratory adjoining a room fitted with a Rowland concave grating, and several dark rooms for photographic work. The main floor contains seven offices for the staff, a laboratory, computing room, and lecture-room, a recep tion room for women, a library feet, besides dark rooms, chemical labora tory, and cabinets for instruments. The low attic along the east and west axis is available only for storage, but an important room is provided on the second floor between the smaller towers, called the heliostat room, nearly 100 feet long. At the north end the roof can be slid back So that a good view of the sky is Obtained, and a heliostat can be mounted on the pier at that point. The horizontal beam Of light can then be studied in the particular manner desired in the long room, which is provided with numerous piers. The most important piece of work thus far done in this laboratory was the first successful measurement of the heat of the stars by Professor E. F. Nichols (then Of Dartmouth College) in the summers of 1898 and 1900.

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