Up to this date, "the Seminary," says Morgan Edwards, "was, for the most part, friendless and moneyless, and therefore forlorn, insomuch that a college edifice was hardly thought of." But the interest manifested in the exercises of Commencement, and the frequent remittances from England, "led some to hope, and many to fear, that the Institution would come to something and stand. Then a building and the place of it were talked of, which well-nigh ruined all. Warren was at first agreed on as a proper situation, where a small wing was to be erected, in the spring of 1770, and about eight hundred pounds, lawful money, was raised towards erecting it. But soon afterwards, some who were unwilling it should be there, and some who were unwilling it should be anywhere, did so far agree as to lay aside the said location, and propose that the county which should raise the most money should have the college." Subscriptions were immediately set on foot in four counties, but the claimants for the honor were finally reduced to two, viz., Providence and Newport. The question was finally settled, at a special meeting of the Corporation held in Warren, February 7, 1770. "The people of Newport had raised," says Manning, in his account of this meeting, "four thousand pounds, lawful money, taking in their unconditional subscription. But Providence presented four thousand, two hundred and eighty pounds, lawful money, and advantages superior to Newport in other respects." The dispute, he adds, lasted from ten o'clock Wednesday morning until the same hour Thursday night, and was decided, in the presence of a large congregation, in favor of Providence, by a vote of twenty-one to fourteen. Soon after this decision, the President and Professor Howell, with their pupils, removed to Providence, occupying for a time the upper part of the brick school-house on Meeting Street, for prayers and recitations. On the fourteenth day of May, 1770, the foundations of the first college building, now called University Hall, were laid; John Brown, one of the "Four Brothers," and the famous leader in the destruction of the _Gaspee_ two years later, placing the corner stone. It was modelled after "Nassau Hall" in Princeton, where President Manning and Professor Howell were graduated. The spot selected for it was the crest of a hill, which then commanded a view of the bay, the river, with the town on its banks, and a broad reach of country on all sides. The land comprised about eight acres, and included a portion of the original "home lot" of Chadd Brown, the associate and friend of Roger Williams, and the "first Baptist Elder in Rhode Island." Now that the buildings of the city have crept up the hill, and, gathering round the college grounds, have stretched out far beyond them, thus shutting out the nearer prospect, the eye can still take in from the top of the building the same varied and beautiful landscape, which once constituted one of the chief attractions of the site.