A Brief History of East Lansing

Category: M.A.C. Buildings

  • College Hall (1856–1918)

    This three-story brick building was the first in the United States to be erected for the teaching of scientific agriculture. It was designed by John C. Holmes as one wing of a larger structure, but limited funds led to building only the west wing, which contained classrooms, laboratories, and offices.† College Hall was the treasured heart…

  • Faculty Row

    The community that ultimately became the City of East Lansing got its start on campus, in the form of a row of brick “cottages” built to house the Agricultural College’s professors and their families. A total of ten houses were built along what is now West Circle Drive, with an additional house just north of…

  • The Architects

    The earliest years of the Michigan Agricultural College were marked by a slow rate of construction, its buildings designed by several different architects. The original trio of buildings—College Hall, Saints’ Rest, the brick horse barn, all 1856—are generally attributed to John C. Holmes. These were followed in 1857 by a quartet of professors’ residences by Scott…

  • The Women’s Building — Morrill Hall (1900–2013)

    Women were first admitted to the Michigan Agricultural College in 1870, ten in that first year.† They were housed in the first floor of the new Williams Hall dormitory, but only for a year, after which the hall was assigned exclusively to men. As a result, none of the original ten completed a degree at M.A.C. In…

  • The Bookstore

    The origins of the M.S.U. Bookstore date to November 1896, when a group of faculty and students organized the “Agricultural College Cooperative Book Buying Association,” or C.B.B.A. Its chief organizer was Wilbur Olin Hedrick (M.A.C. ’91), Assistant Professor of History and Political Economy, who was a major proponent of cooperative organizations in agriculture. The primary purpose of the…

  • The Local Societies and the Union Literary Society House (1890–1953)

    One of the Michigan Agricultural College’s primary duties beyond the teaching of scientific agriculture was to prepare young men (and, later, women) for leadership positions in their home communities. An important part of this goal was practice in public speaking, debate, and writing skills. As a result students organized societies that held regular forums for…

  • The Society Houses

    For a look at the origins of the local societies, see The Local Societies and the Union Literary Society House. As the twentieth century dawned, the two chapters of national fraternities that had been established at the Michigan Agricultural College in the 1870s were no longer active. The Iota chapter of Delta Tau Delta disbanded…

  • Bacteriology Laboratory — Marshall–Adams Hall (1902)

    The early years of bacteriology research at M.A.C. are closely tied to the man for whom this building is today named, Dr. Charles Edward Marshall (1866–1927). C. E. Marshall joined the staff of the Experiment Station in 1896 as bacteriologist and hygienist, a position he held until 1902. During this period, he somehow managed to find the…

  • Faculty Row № 7—Cowles House (1857, 1950)

    Cowles House started life as one of four brick cottages built as the first faculty residences on campus in 1857. The bricks used in its construction were made of clay dug from the banks of the Red Cedar River and fired in a temporary kiln in the hollow near West Circle Drive south of Beal…