The Summer Grounds at Berrien Springs
By William Covert
In establishing the educational work at Berrien Springs, Mich., it was decided to procure some woodland, and prepare a grove in it for summer-school work. It was also planned to use this same grove for such assemblies as the interest of the cause might demand. In harmony with this purpose twenty-seven small summer cottages capable of comfortably accommodating four persons each, have been erected upon the finest part of the wooded lot. Also a pavilion that will seat an audience of three hundred and fifty persons has been built in the grove. This pavilion is circular in form, seventy feet in diameter. A circle of cement composes the foundation, and one center pillar, or pole, about thirty feet high, supports the upper end of its rafters. The other ends of these rafters rest upon plates supported by four-inch by six-inch posts, which rest upon the circular wall. These posts are each directly beneath the lower end of the several rafters. The rafters are also steadied and strengthened by four circular bands of bridging of equal distances apart between the center and the outward circles. The rafters are sheeted solid with hemlock, and then covered with fifty thousand shingles. The wall of lumber is three and one-half feet high at the lower extremity of the posts, and at the top of the posts there is a three-foot drop of wainscoting. The central space is filled with screen wire. An awning is provided as a covering for this screen, and this is rolled up or down as the condition of the weather demands. This tabernacle is seated with desks which were brought from the chapel of the Battle Creek College. The ground where the building stands is about three feet lower at the east edge of the circle where the rostrum is placed than is the west side at the main entrance. The placing of the seats, and the natural incline of the ground are such that every person seated in the audience easily sees the speaker's desk by looking directly forward. Six inches of sand slightly mixed with cement constitutes the floor. In this sand floor wooden blocks are placed, and upon these blocks the feet of the desks are made secure by screws. The whole pavilion, including the lamps, but not the desks, cost about eight hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars of this was donated by two persons, the remainder being made up by donations from friends.