I’ve recently been scanning very old photos for a project I’m working on. We have a surprisingly large number of images from the two years before the Institute opened, taken to document the construction progress. I came across one a few days ago that seems to be the earliest existing image of the view from what would become the front side of the Administration Building looking toward the main gate. It was taken on September 28, 1910:

It looks both isolated and quiet but the area was actually already a beehive of activity. Here’s a picture taken a few days before, probably from atop the water tower that seems to have been the first thing the contractors built on the site. If you zoom in on it you can see a lot of action:

By the way, the largest structure visible here, at top right, is Charles Weber’s farmstead.

Bonus: