This web page is a transcription of pages 1-53 of G.W. Hinckley, The Good Will Idea (Hinckley, Maine: Good Will Publishing Company, 1922).

Excerpts follow:

On the evening of June 3rd, 1922, the Good Will
community and friends gathered for the formal re-
opening of the Prescott Memorial. The following
account is taken from the July, 1922, number of the
Good Will Record:

... "Mr. G. W. Hinckley explained that he would say
nothing in his address which was not recorded on
the paper which he held in his hand, for the reason
that he wished the donor of the building, Mr. Amos
L. Prescott, of New York City, to know exactly what
was being said at that hour, and he had forwarded
a copy of the brief address to him. Mr. Hinckley
then continued:
"'The formal re-opening of the Administration
Building, this evening, is an extraordinary event; in
its details it is probably unique in the history of
institutions.
"'In 1915, Mr. Amos L. Prescott made two notable
and unsolicited gifts to the Good Will Home Asso-
ciation. First, an administration building, in honor
of his parents, James L. and Harriet M. Prescott, to
be known as the Prescott Memorial; it was built and
equipped at a cost of about $75,000; second, about
a mile of macadamized roads and walks, costing ap-
proximately $25,000. The Prescott Memorial was
not for the present needs alone, of Good Will, but it
was intended to meet the requirements of a steadily
developing Good Will; its equipment was perfect-
the best that could be secured.
"'On the morning of June 28th, 1920, the building
was destroyed by fire; only the foundation and the
brick walls remained. A telegram was sent to Mr.
Prescott; just how the news affected the donor of
the beautiful structure, I do not know; to Good Will
and friends of Good Will it seemed an almost crush-
ing disaster.
"Mr. Prescott's reply contained these words:
"'We will rebuild.'
"Yes, we would rebuild; of course the structure
must be replaced, but when and how? There were
two ways. The insurance upon the building was
ample at the time it was placed, but in the meantime
the world war had increased the cost of building,
enormously, and the funds forthcoming from the
insurance companies would be entirely inadequate.
We could wait for the insurance funds, carefully
invested, to increase until sufficient to replace the
building in its original dignity and perfect equip-
ment, but the institution would be crippled for a
long time; or, we could receive the insurance and
rebuild and equip on such a scale as the amount
would allow, but this would mean a pitiful apology
in place of the stately structure which the donor had
planned and presented. There was still another
possibility; but it was not one that we had any right
to expect or hope. But this third possibility devel-
oped into a reality, and, therefore, we are assembled
here this evening. At Mr. Amos L. Prescott's sug-
gestion, the available funds for rebuilding and
equipping the structure were turned over to him; he
proposed to use them in the work of retrieving Good
Will's fortune, and when those funds were exhaust-
ed, he would supply the deficiency-he would stand
in the gap; he gave instructions that, aside from a
few changes which might be an improvement in the
arrangement of the original building, it was to be
exactly reproduced.

... "And so, tonight, the Prescott Building is formally
reopened; just what it has cost the generous, whole-
hearted donor may never be made public; but the
architect of the building, Mr. Edgar A. Josselyn, of
New York, in a recent interview, told me that the
cost of rebuilding, notwithstanding the fact that the
foundations and walls remained, would be about
equal to the original structure; in other words, the
edifice we are now occupying represents the cost of
two such buildings and their equipment. Such
princely generosity is worthy of all praise; it is an
illustration of loyalty to an ideal; it is the fruit of a
genuine philanthropic spirit."