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have been completed in another two or three weeks--but now we are
just HOPING we may move into it by the first of January. The
college is now seriously handicapped for lack of buildings and
facilities. And God's Work can GROW only as we graduate more
young people trained for the many, many different operations
required in getting out Christ's own GOSPEL to THIRTY MILLION
PEOPLE every week!
For years the college operated in old mansions--former
residences--which we were able to buy at a fraction of the cost of
new buildings. But now we have outgrown all of them. and we are
forced to build. Recently I received a letter from a radio
listener and PLAIN TRUTH subscriber in Worcester, Massachusetts,
commenting on our building expansion program that has become such
a vital necessity to God's Work. I wish all our Co-Workers could
UNDERSTAND this need--and the manner in which we are meeting it at
such comparative LOW COST, as this man does.
I want to quote what he wrote: "An enclosed article asks as
follows: 'Are Big Cathedrals on the Way Out?' It is interesting
to note that Ambassador College would never waste its money on such
useless overgrown stone barns. Ambassador College, as I can
plainly see, gets the most mileage from its money; i.e., restoring
fine old estates, and where new buildings are needed, erecting the
most tasteful and functional structures of contemporary
architecture. (The proposed new auditorium at Pasadena is an
excellent example.) The motto of the Ambassador College building
program could well be: 'Useful, Functional, Beautiful.'"
This man grasped what I wish all our Co-Workers might
understand--that, as far as possible, we have utilized fine,
well-built old structures, acquired at a fraction of their original
cost, and put in shape at a comparatively very low cost.
For example, take Ambassador Hall on the Pasadena campus. It
was a mansion of Hulett C. Merritt, who was by far the largest
shareholder of United States Steel Corporation. He also owned some
65 other corporations outright. He was reputed to be worth two or
three hundred MILLION dollars. He told me that this one building
on his grounds, built between 1905 and 1908, cost $1,100,000. That
much money, in 1908, was about equal to five or ten million dollars
today.
But then there are the magnificently landscaped grounds,
including the breath-taking Italian formal sunken garden, which
must have cost several hundred thousand dollars more. It was the
most fabulous place in Pasadena. All this, with its four or five
acres of grounds fronting on Pasadena's finest residence boulevard,
came to us for less money than it would cost today to install the
ornate iron fence around the front half of the property.
Then consider the case of fabulous Memorial Hall in England.
This was built in 1925 by Sir David Yule, whose wealth was, on
today's dollar value, equal to just about ONE BILLION dollars. It
is about the same size as Ambassador Hall in Pasadena, and equally
fine. Yet in 1959 we purchased that fine mansion, with some ten
acres of fantastically beautiful grounds, for--believe it or