"After long years of perseverance I obtained the means by carrying on a very extended business which I thought would enable me to complete such a building. I ascertained from an architect what the cost would be to put up a building covering the block of ground where the building now stands, on a plan that I showed him, which I believed to be the best calculated to accomplish the objects that I had in view. The amount he said it would cost for the building alone, without the ground, would be three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. When I had begun at it and carried it to completion I found I had expended over six hundred and thirty four thousand dollars instead of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, as he represented in the first place would be the cost.
Architect's initial drawing on the Cooper Union foundation building.
"Some years before I commenced the building I had loaned some money to a man who owned the principal corner lot on Seventh Street and Third Avenue, which it was not convenient for him to pay me and he gave me that lot for the price that we agreed on, and that was the commencement of the purchase of the ground on that block, as I saw that if I could get the whole of it would be one of the best spots for such a building for such a purpose that could be found on the island. As fast as opportunity offered, I bought one piece after another and then I obtained the whole block of ground. When I had accomplished that, I commenced the building which has since been erected and has been kept in operation, giving free instruction to many thousands of young people in this city for and during the last twenty-three years, and it will be twenty-four years next May since its completion."
