Rev. Edward G. Porter of Lexington, one of the trustees, to whose indefatigable efforts the occasion owed a large portion of its success, called the meeting to order, and in the absence of Hon. Rufus S. Frost, who had been expected to preside, invited Professor Churchill to the chair. Professor Churchill whose gift of graceful speech never fails, introduced with a few delightful words Prof. E. A. Park, who has been president of the board of trustees more than twenty-five years. Professor Park responded: "The roof of the first edifice for Abbot Academy was laid the 28th of October, 1828. One week after that day I became a member of Andover Theological Seminary. I heard at once of the new and beautiful building; I think I was the first college graduate who walked on the floor of the present Academy Hall. It was said to be the best school edifice in Essex County or even the state of Massachusetts. Thus it began its existence with an aspiration in fine architecture. The style of this edifice is not so classical now as it was fifty-six years ago. When the academy received its new telescope it was too poor to provide it a suitable place. Therefore a dome was erected on the roof, which disturbed the symmetry of the Grecian architecture. The telescope does good service under the dome; but it is a sign of the indigence of the academy. When I reflect on the progress made by other institutions, I am astonished at the march of events. Twenty years after the founding of Abbot Academy, the little settlement at Chicago had not been heard of at Andover. When Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes received his first request to provide a missionary for that settlement, he asked a friend of mine, 'Where is Kick-a-go?' That little settlement of 'Kickago' has now received a fund of more than three million dollars for a city library. When our academy was founded, no man in Andover suspected that California would become one of our United States; but California has recently received twelve million dollars for the founding of a University. I was acquainted with the founder of Smith College in Northampton, and also with the founder of Abbot Academy. In some particulars the two ladies had a marked resemblance to each other. The founder of Smith College gave to it four hundred thousand dollars; the founder of Abbot Academy gave to it $10,109.04. Those four cents have played a conspicuous role in the history of the academy. They have been a sign of its indigence from its earliest to the present day."