Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1855

pg 227       right bank of the St. Joseph.  It would perhaps be impossible, 
             apart from all personal advantages to the Society, to find another 
             site all the length of the St. Joseph, so well suited and so 
             charming as that occupied today by this Institution.  It covers a 
             magnificent plateau bounded on the south by the river at a depth 
             of 75 ft,. and on the west by a rich prairie almost at the 
             ordinary level of the waters of the St. Joseph.  F. Sorin had a 
             first given twenty acres, and somewhat later he added thirty.
                  The general plan of the present buildings is to be seen in 
             the lines traced at the top of this page.  It is to be three 
             hundred and sixty feet in length.  Before the end of this year the 
             central part was entirely finished, and afforded room for sixty 
             boarders and some thirty Sisters.  Towards the beginning of 
             December the postulants' house, with twenty-two subjects, was 
             added, and there was room for all.
                  Towards the end of the same month the northern portion was 
             sufficiently advanced to accomodate the whole manual-labor school 
             of thirty girls and three Sisters.  The central portion, which was