CURTISS HALL

The Twenty-Ninth General Assembly (1901-03) had provided a one-fifth mill tax levy for capital improvements at the college. The Board of Trustees, in September of 1902, held lengthy discussions on priority of construction for a new central building and a new hall for agriculture. The final decision resulted in postponement of the new Agricultural Hall until after Central Building had been built.¹

The architect was retained in November 1904. The following year, in December, plans were approved. At the same time it was agreed to ask Olmstead Brothers, landscape architects to recommend the site for the building. ²

Bids were first received in February 1906, but they proved to be too high. Plans were then revised and new bids taken in August, and a contract for general construction was awarded to H.W. Schleuter in the amount of $212,000. This aid not include the “assembly hall” east wing of the building.³

The site selected for the building was “one hundred (100) feet directly east of the site recommended by Olmsted Brothers.”⁴ The ISC Student explained the change: “A great deal of indignation has been stirred up by the proposed location of the building on the central lawn. Faculty and students alike have felt that it was not right to mar our beautiful lawn by placing a building in the center of it.”⁵

Authorization for the east wing was made in May 1907 with a revised contract for construction. Total estimated cost then amounted to $318,000.⁶

In September 1907 all work on the building was suspended when contractor Schleuter was declared bankrupt. Work soon resumed under the Empire State Surety Co., the bonding company.

Contracts for the mechanical and electrical work were awarded in January 1908.⁷

The building was ready for occupancy in June 1909, but it was 1912 before all accounts with the surety company had been settled.

A change in name from Agricultural Hall to Curtiss Hall was made in June 1944 in honor of long-time Dean of Agriculture Charles F. Curtiss.