Veterinary Laboratory (1885—1930)

The first Veterinary Laboratory was built in 1885 on a site about where the intersection of West Circle Drive and Auditorium Road is today. It was designed by William P. Appleyard, who submitted plans for the Armory and Faculty Row № 10 at that same time. On its first floor was an operating room where students received clinical instruction. The second floor held an anatomy lab, where in the cool weather at the end of each fall term, a deceased horse would be hoisted in a “convenient,” if “rickety,” elevator for the sake of student dissection. From 1900 to 1902, the second floor also was used for bacteriology research until “Old Bact’y” was completed.¹

This photograph is informative in showing how much of the College farm was located north of the river in 1886. The Veterinary Laboratory is at far right. From right to left appear: the “new” horse barn of 1872, built by Professor Manly Miles; the cattle barn of 1862, with a silo projecting to the left built by Professor Samuel Johnson (in 1887, according to Beal; note this contradicts the date of the photo); finally, at left and beyond, the grain barn of 1883, which contained the College’s first underground silo, also by Prof. Johnson.²

Between 1902 and 1908, all of these barns were moved south to a new farm complex just north of the river. In the place of the 1872 horse barn and the 1862 cattle barn at the center of this photo, Agriculture Hall was built.³

The Veterinary Lab continued to be used for anatomy studies even after the construction of a new Veterinary Clinic in 1915. The old lab was torn down in summer 1930, around the time the new Anatomy Building was beginning construction.⁴

1. Minutes, 21 Apr 1885, pp. 470–471. Kuhn, pp. 151, 231. ↩︎
2. Beal, p. 154. ↩︎
3. Beal, p. 269. ↩︎
4. Stanford, p. 85. Kuhn, p. 352. Dressel, p. 365. Minutes, 12 Aug 1930, p. 894. MSC Record, 35(12), Aug 1930, p. 13. ↩︎