June 4, 1913

At the dedication of the Students’ Building, President Taylor read a letter from the anonymous donor and presented the building to Victoria Searle ’13, the president of the Student Association. The building’s architect, Joseph Herendon Clark, of the firm McKim, Mead and White, patterned the new building after Christ Church in Alexandria, VA, where George Washington worshipped.

The identity of the donor of the Students’ Building was withheld for years, but at the request of the president and the trustees she communicated anonymously with the leaders of the Student Association about their responsibilities for the building, which was intended for the “exclusive needs and interests of student organizations.” The donor, Mary Babbott Ladd ’08, president of the Student Association in her senior year, was among the eight Student Association ex-presidents who participated in the building’s first student convocation on September 27, 1913.