BEVIER HOUSE

The Agricultural Experimentation Station was established in 1888, and a first concern was the erection of a headquarters building. Three thousand dollars was the sum allocated for that purpose.

The building was erected on a site a little over a hundred feet east of Botany Hall and with its north face on line with the south wall of that building. The Station building was two stories high, frame, with a propagating house attached. In August 1888 The Aurora reported:

The building connected with the Experimentation Station is now complete and the various departments are being furnished with the very best apparatus, books, etc. It is a neat and commodious building and the abundant funds the officers of the station have had at their disposal, enabled them to procure all the advantages for the most thorough work in their line.

In December 1892 the Trustees ordered that the building be assigned to the Music department. That was a rather temporary home for that department because in May 1894 it was also assigned to the department of Botany, and underwent some repair, remodeling and painting.¹

The building was moved in 1896 to a location at what is now the center of the west wing of MacKay Hall, just north of Margaret Hall. It became a home for employees of the boarding department in Margaret Hall, and was known as the Klatter Klub.

It was moved again, in 1910, to the east about the center of the east wing of MacKay Hall. It then became the residence of Thomas Sloss, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, who made it his family home until 1924. The sum of $3800 was expended to prepare the house for Sloss.

With construction of MacKay Hall about to begin the house was again moved, between December 1924 and March 1925, to a location just southwest of the southwest corner of the Metallurgy Building where it became the Isabel Bevier Home Management House. Estimated cost of repairs for that use was $1500.²

When plans for the Metallurgy Building were developed it became necessary to move the Bevier House and the Coburn House from the site, and the project budget for that building, provided by the Atomic Energy Commission, included $25,000 for the cost of moving the two Home Management houses.

They were moved to the north of Pammel Drive, facing west on what is now called North Morrill Road.

Bevier House continued as a home management house until 1953 and again served that function in 1955-56. In 1953-55 and 1956-61 it was home for graduate women. It then became office space for retired and emeritus faculty members.