Mr. W. H. Crossland, who had built the fine Town Hall at Rochdale, was chosen as the architect, and began at Virginia Water the stately and handsome Sanatorium in the English Renaissance style of architecture, of red brick with stone trimmings. There is a massive and lofty tower in the centre. The interior is finished in gray marble, which is enriched with cheerful colors and plentiful gilding. The great lecture or concert hall, adorned with portraits of distinguished persons by Mr. Girardot and other artists, has a very richly gilded roof. The refectory is decorated by a series of beautiful fancy groups after Watteau, forming a frieze.
The six hundred rooms of the building, great and small, on the four floors, are exquisitely finished and furnished, all made as attractive as possible, that those of both sexes who are weary and broken in mind may have much to interest them in their long days of absence from home and friends. Students of the National Art Training School, under Mr. Poynter, did much of the art work. There are no blank walls.
The Holloway Sanatorium, which is five hundred feet by two hundred feet in extent, has a model laundry in a separate building, pretty red brick houses for the staff and those who are not obliged to sleep in the building, a pleasure-house for rest and recreation for the inmates, and a handsome chapel.
Four hundred or more patients can be accommodated. A moderate charge is made for those who can afford to pay, and only those persons thought to be curable are received. As much freedom is allowed as possible, that the inmates may not unnecessarily feel the surveillance under which they are obliged to live.
The Sanatorium was opened June 15, 1885, by the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Princess, their three daughters, and the Duke of Cambridge. Mr. Martin Holloway, the brother-in-law of Mr. Thomas Holloway, spoke of the uses of the Sanatorium, and the Prince of Wales replied in a happy manner.
Many inmates were received at once, and the institution has proved a great blessing.
To what other uses should Mr. Holloway put his large fortune? He and Mrs. Holloway had long thought of a college for women, and after her death he determined to build one as a memorial to her who had helped him through all those days of poverty and self-sacrifice.
In 1875 Mr. Holloway held a conference with the blind Professor Henry Fawcett, Member of Parliament, and his able wife, Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart., Mr. David Chadwick, M.P., Dr. Hague of New York, and others interested in the higher education of women. Mr. Holloway foresaw, with these educators, that in the future women would seek a university education like their brothers. "For many years," says Mr. Martin Holloway, "his mind was dominated by the idea that if a higher form of education would ennoble women, the sons of such mothers would be nobler men."