hosted a $1500 solid gold crown made in France (which today is kept in the Main Building on display). The architect was William Thomas from Chicago, and most of the workers who built it were brothers of the Congregation of Holy Cross. In a publicity stunt to give visibility to the college, Rev. Edward Sorin invited important clerics (including top-ranking American catholic cleric Bishop Martin John Spalding) and congressmen to the dedication on May 31, 1886. Classes were taught on the third floor which hosted thirteen large classrooms and professor rooms, the fourth and fifth floors hosted dormitories, while the refectory and study halls were situated on the first floor. The interior was decorated with 52 stands of medieval armor and a natural history museum, while the exterior featured a Cour d'honneur courtyard and a statue of Sacred Heart by Robert Cassiani, placed in 1893 and modeled after a similar one at Sacré-Cœur in Paris. Fire of 1879 The building stood for 14 years before being destroyed by a great fire on April 23, 1879. At around eleven in the morning on Wednesday, 23 April 1879, smoke and flames could be seen rising from the roof of the Main Building. The causes of the fire might be due to repairs on the roof, and the fire might have started due to the dry timber on the roof, although it was not possible to ascertain it. The fire was first spotted from the minim's courtyard, and soon early attempts at putting out the fire were made, with lines of people passing buckets of water towards the roof of the building by steam pressure. Despite these efforts, the fire had spread to the entire roof and quickly consumed the upper floors. The South Bend Fire Department was not able to arrive in time to save the main building, because of the long time needed to round up the volunteer firemen and set up the machines. The supports of the dome burned away and the statue went crashing below in a billow of sparks and flame, and efforts focused on rescuing whatever valuable effects might be carried out of the burning building. In the zeal to save precious objects students threw many of the valuables from the windows, yet despite the well-intentioned effort, almost all of these were lost in crashing on the ground. This was especially true for many of the precious