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The Convention Bureau's rival plans for rebuilding the burned area, announced the day after the fire, underscored the civic nature of the Exposition loss. The new million-dollar Greco-Roman design called for an auditorium , stadium, natatorium and replacement Multnomah clubhouse with a separate women's annex. Ultimately, the club's will prevailed without public confrontation. On November 11, one month after being submitted to building committee chairman George W. Simons, plans for a new clubhouse facing Salmon Street were accepted by the board. Morris Whitehouse, architect and former Workmen used jackhammers to free the cornerstone ceremoniously placed by Teddy Roosevelt. Once the marble slab was removed that july day in 1971, the legendary copper box of memorabilia was not to be found .
club baseball star, working fee-free, had rendered 89 pages of blueprints, the basis for creating the finest athletic facility in the American West, estimated to cost $168,000 plus an additional $65,000 or so for furnishings. Its 150,000 square feet would
provide "three floors above ground, and basement and subbasement below . .. 44living rooms, one racquet court, four squash courts and two handball courts, besides a bigger gymnasium than the old one and a swimming tank." A
DEDICATION TOO GOOD TO MISS DRAWS 12,000
Teddy Roosevelt was said to have uttered his famous "Dee-lighted! " when club president Holt invited him to lay the new building's cornerstone. Roosevelt was in the midst of a train excursion through the West at the time, testing the presidential campaign waters. His Portland stop was a mere nine hours long. Excavation of the Salmon Street hillside had begun only six weeks earlier and the foundation was far from complete, but a presidential dedication was too good to miss. On AprilS , 1911 , a day filled with grandstanding and showmanship, an honor guard of Spanish-American War veterans led T. R. to the site. Wielding a specially engraved Teddy Roosevelt used the specially engraved silver trowel, on the facing page, to spread mortar for lay ing the cornerstone less than nine months after the Chapman Street clubhouse fire. While the Salmon Street site was fa r from ready, America's popular ex-president was "dee-lighted" to dedicate it on AprilS, 1911 . He congratulated club members on their anti-drinking and anti-gambling stands, saying " Drinking tends to tear down the athlete and no one who drinks to excess can have a sound body.''