What we now know as the University of Nebraska's East Campus has been referred to by several names, was originally located two miles northwest of its current location and has been supplemented by land purchases and gifts numerous times.
What started with two buildings, one of which was a small stone house, has grown into a campus with dozens of buildings on what has been called the most beautiful campus in the university’s system.
As early as 1837 a federal act to fund agricultural colleges was discussed. Proposed in 1857 and passed by Congress in 1859, the original bill by Vermont Congressman Justin S. Morrill was vetoed by President James Buchanan in 1861. The original bill was then redrawn to specifically teach agriculture and to include the teaching of military tactics, science and the classics. It was passed by Congress and was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. Because the bill gave 30,000 acres of federally owned land for each sitting senator and congressman, it was often referred to as the Land Grant College Act.
People are also reading…
When the state legislature passed the 1869 bill creating the University of Nebraska, it established six colleges, each with “chairs,†later known as department heads, including the College of Agriculture.
In 1871 Samuel Thompson was appointed “Chair of Theory and Practice of Agriculture†and an appropriation of $1,000 granted for improvements was made.
By the mid-1870s still no actual agriculture college actually existed, and it was suggested that the original and only structure on the campus existed until Chemistry Hall was built in 1884, be officially named Agriculture College to at least lend some credence to the college.
The regents officially opened the Agriculture College for classes for the 1872-73 school year and though lectures were given, no students enrolled. Again, no students enrolled in the second year, but in 1874, 15 students finally signed up. During that year the regents purchased the 320-acre Moses Culver farm two miles east of Lincoln and the “old†agriculture campus was disposed of, ultimately returning to the University as Innovation Campus.
The following year a dormitory was built along side of the Culver home for use of students working on the “model farm,†at the initial charge of $3 per week for board and room. Of the first three students, Charles McGowan became “Governor of Cuba and the Canal Zone,†with the other two becoming university professors.
There were still no actual classrooms on what was universally called the Farm Campus, with all classes held at the downtown campus in the 1887 Industrial College Building on the northeast corner of the original four-square-block campus until 1896.
That year, the two-story, $6,000, frame, Dairy Building was constructed on the north side of Holdrege Street about a block east of the original Culver house and Dorm. Laboratories were on the first floor with classrooms on the second. A year later an addition was built, and both were bricked over.
In 1887 the federal Hatch Act allotted $15,000 to all state land grant colleges. An increase in the funding allowed construction of the $27,500 Agriculture Experiment Station building in 1899, which was remodeled in 1959. This building, which originally housed classrooms, labs and library, is today the oldest surviving building on the East Campus.
In July of 1903 the Lincoln Street railway system, which had, up until then, extended only to 27th and Holdrege streets, was extended to the Farm Campus, making connection to the downtown campus easier. 1903 also saw the state legislature appropriating $100,000 to the Farm Campus, allowing construction of a dairy barn, Agriculture Hall, Horticulture Hall and the Farm Machinery Building. Postcards of the Farm Campus in the 1910 era show the beginnings of the Mall which was designed by British landscape garden architect W. A. Dunman.
When the earliest college classes brought no official students, it was felt partially because many farm families' students had only completed the minimum eight years of high school, a separate school, aimed at bringing students up to a 12th grade level, was instituted downtown and called the “School of Agriculture.†In 1906 this school admitted girls in Home Economics classes and in 1908 E. H. Burnett noted that “about 20% of all the students are now registered in the School of Agriculture.†The school closed in 1918 when the state officially expanded high school to 12 years.
In 1963 an inter-campus bus service was established, and in 1964 the Farm Campus, which never had an official name, was designated as East Campus.
The University School of Law relocated to the East Campus from its 1913 downtown building, followed by the College of Dentistry in 1967-68, ETV/Nebraska Public Media and the Barkley Memorial Center for Speech and Hearing Disorders followed. In 1973 the original 1896 Dairy Building was razed at a cost of $100 less than the building’s original total cost.
Photos: Historic UNL buildings
University of Nebraska-Lincoln buildings; Architectural Hall
UNL CBA building
UNL Temple Building
UNL Morrill Hall
Cather Hall, Pound Hall
Teachers College
Brace Laboratory
Brace Hall
University of Nebraska astronomical observatory
UNL Architecture Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln buildings; Architectural Hall
Cather Hall, Pound Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln buildings; Architectural Hall
Historian Jim McKee, who still writes with a fountain pen, invites comments or questions. Write to him at P.O. Box 5575, Lincoln, NE, 68505 or at jim@leebooksellers.com.