Introduction

Origins

The City

Collegeville (1887, 1895)
College Delta (1898, 1899)
Oakwood (1899)
Cedar Banks (1900)
College Grove (1903)
Fairview (1904, 1905)
College Heights (1904)

Charter of 1907

Avondale (1913)
Bungalow Knolls (1916)
Chesterfield Hills (1916)
Ardson (1919)
Ridgeley Park (1921)
Strathmore (1925)
Glen Cairn (1926)
Bailey (1927)
Touraine (1927)

The Campus

Chronology

Interactive Map

Sites on the National and State Historic Registers

Complete list of
Significant Structures

Sources

Agriculture Hall (1909) SR

Agriculture Hall, shortly after completion in 1909. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Physical Plant.

When the Michigan Agricultural College was founded in 1855, its primary purpose was to provide an education in scientific agriculture. Yet at the time, the field of scientific agriculture barely existed even as a concept. The College's early years were marked by rudimentary experimentation and, occasionally, a steep learning curve. A famous example is the 1857 turnip crop, which was sown so generously that despite repeated thinnings, the plants grew "thick as hair on a dog" and the resulting roots came out more slender than carrots. (Later successes, such as the 1859 bumper crop, were less publicized by the school's detractors.)[Kuhn, pp.38-39]

Prior to the first Agriculture Laboratory, built in 1889, the Department of Agriculture "had occupied... one classroom at a time when chemistry, botany, veterinary, engineering, and horticulture each enjoyed separate buildings."[Kuhn, p.227] With its own building, over the next twenty years, research in agriculture grew to the status of a full-fledged science. As a result, the department received a new laboratory building commensurate with its importance to the College.

Built at a cost of $182,000, Agriculture Hall was the largest building on campus when it was dedicated in 1909, being 86 by 190 feet and five stories tall.[Beal, p.285] It was constructed on the former site of the College's second horse barn, marking the beginning of a migration of the school's farm buildings to sites closer to the farm itself, south of the river. The hall housed classrooms and laboratories for subjects such as farm mechanics and machinery, animal husbandry, agronomy, and soil chemistry. Upper floors contained offices, and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources resides there to this day.

Original first floor plan of Agriculture Hall, with judging pavilion. Image credit: M.S.U. Physical Plant.

The center of "Ag Hall" originally included a livestock judging pavilion, which protruded to the rear and included a gallery for spectators. This was apparently removed after it was superceded by the Judging Pavilion, which stood between North and South Shaw Lanes from 1938 until 1997. A new, ADA-compliant rear entrance to Ag Hall was completed in 1991, and a 27,000-square-foot annex, attached to that, was dedicated on 13 October, 2000.[Stanford, p.55]

Cornerstone of Agriculture Hall, showing the year of construction rather than completion, Spring, 1993.
Photo Credit: Kevin S. Forsyth.

As part of the Laboratory Row, Agriculture Hall is listed on the state historic register.

Back to top

All content Copyright 1992 - 2008 by , unless otherwise noted.
This site is a work in progress and should be regarded as such. Use at your own risk.