 He later commissioned the Smith Observatory, with a dome built by the Warner & Swasey Company, and persuaded William Robert Brooks, a prolific comet-finder, to direct it, attracting him with the state-of-the-art observatory and a house built for Brooks and his family.Smith also promoted free lectures given by Brooks.He then became interested in founding a women's college, a plan that he pursued to the point of breaking ground before realizing that the plan was beyond even his means.