in this institution; that His word may be faithfully taught here;
and that He will use it as a means of leading precious souls to
the Lord Jesus Christ."

There followed, also in Mrs. Durant's handwriting, two passages
from the Scriptures: II Chronicles, 29: 11-16, and the phrase
from the one hundred twenty-seventh Psalm: "Except the Lord
build the house they labor in vain that build it."


This stone is now the corner stone of the new building which rises
on College Hill, and another, the keystone of the arch above the
north door of old College Hall, will be set above the doorway of
the new administration building, where its deep-graven I.H.S.
will daily remind those who pass beneath it of Wellesley's unbroken
tradition of Christian scholarship and service.

But we must go back to the days before one stone was laid upon
another, if we are to begin at the beginning of Wellesley's story.
It was in 1855, the year after his marriage, that Mr. Durant bought
land in Wellesley village, then a part of Needham, and planned
to make the place his summer home. Every one who knew him speaks
of his passion for beauty, and he gave that passion free play when
he chose, all unwittingly, the future site for his college. There
is no fairer region around Boston than this wooded, hilly country
near Natick--"the place of hills"--with its little lakes, its
tranquil, winding river, its hallowed memories of John Eliot and
his Christian Indian chieftains, Waban and Pegan, its treasured
literary associations with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Chief Waban
gave his name, "Wind" or "Breath", to the college lake; on