September 23, 1865

President John Raymond wrote to his wife and family, still at their home in Brooklyn. The first students were all in residence.

“I am very tired, and have to preach my first sermon tomorrow. So you will not expect much of a letter.

“It seems like a dream, the sudden transmutation of this great lumbering pile of brick and mortar, which hung on my spirit like a mountainous millstone, into a palace of light and life. Last evening, about nine o’clock, I got out for the first time after dark, walked quietly down the front avenue to the gate-lodge under the dim light of the stars, and then turned to look at the College. It was illuminated from end to end. I then returned and walked around the whole. On every side it sparkled like a diamond…. The blinds were generally open, and many of the windows; and everywhere fair young forms were moving around, and merry voices were heard in conversation and song. At the rear the pianos were going, and you would have thought the building had been inhabited for years instead of hours.”

John Howard Raymond, Life and Letters of John Howard Raymond, Edited by his Eldest Daughter