DAVIDSON HALL

The Biennial Report for 1912-1914 stated “The Ag. Engr. Dept. in this institution has entirely outgrown its present quarters and a new building is urgently needed. Such a building should constitute one of the permanent fireproof buildings of the campus, and if properly planned and constructed to meet the immediate and future needs, a suitable building will cost “$200,000”. The “present quarters” refer to the north wing of Old Botany, built in 1903 as the Farm Mechanics Building.

In January, 1915, a request was made for $150,000 for the building and the following month Mr. Proudfoot presented tentative plans for an agricultural engineering building. No further action was taken, however, until April 1920 when the Architect was asked to prepare plans for the building.¹

Construction of the building started in the summer of 1921, with a budget of $72,000.² It was described in the Iowa State Student on November 4, 1921:

The structure is to be a one-story brick building, 220 feet long by 180 feet wide, with a large court in the center and entrances at each end. At present this will house, mainly, the tractor and gas engine laboratory… work will be started some time later on the three-story building to be built directly in front of the laboratory in which the balance of the agricultural engineering work will be carried on. This will contain office and class rooms.

Construction was completed at the end of January 1922.

The building was gutted by a major fire on March 31, 1941. The account in the Iowa State Daily Student the following day reported the loss:

The fire broke out in the farm statistics laboratory at the northeast corner of the building where the United States Department of Agriculture has been conducting corn storage research. Prof. J.B. Davidson, head of the Agricultural Engineering Department, said the flame apparently started from a short circuit in some equipment being used to dry corn cobs in the research experiments.

The flame appeared to be under control at 8 a.m., but the blaze spread between the ceiling and roof and gushed forth again with vast volumes of smoke and flame at 9:30. It swept from the northeast corner to the south and western end and retraced its path. The eastern and southern wings were completely destroyed… A study room, draft room, store room, carpenters’ room, machine shop, experiment room, the research laboratory and office of the teaching staff were demolished. The large tractor and machinery laboratory at the northwest corner of the brick and steel structure was the only room escaping damage.

Replacement funds were made available from the state in April 1941 and the firm of Buettler and Arnold, Sioux City, was employed as architect. Bids were received on August 19 but exceeded the budget and were rejected. Plans were revised by the architect and new bids taken on September 9 but these also were too high and were rejected. In November 1941 the architect was paid for his work to that time and was discharged, and the Department of Buildings and Grounds and A.H. Kimball were authorized to revise the drawings and specifications.³

New bids, based on the revised plans, were received on December 29, 1941, and construction contracts were awarded to the low bidders, as follows: ⁴

The February l7, 1942, issue of the Iowa State Daily Student described the new plans:

The old building… will be replaced by a structure which will have a second story on the south wing. The rest of the new building will be similar to the old structure… with the second story addition adding approximately 20 percent more floor area to that of the old building.

The second story will contain four classrooms, two drafting laboratories, 10 offices, a seminar room and a graduate students’ room. The first floor will include two large classrooms, nine offices, and storage rooms in the south wing. The west wing, least affected by the fire will remain practically the same as it was…

The east wing will be reconstructed, using the wall of the former building which was not destroyed in the fire. There will be five laboratories, a materials laboratory, farm mechanics laboratory, structural research and machinery research laboratory in the west wing as well as a carpenter shop and a farm mechanics shop. The open service court in the center of the building will be retained…

The south wing will measure 189 by 42 feet. The whole building will be 226 feet deep. The building will have the same ground area and the foundations will remain the same with the exception of the south facade and the east and west ends of the south wing. As in the original building there will be no basement…

Construction started the end of February 1942⁵ and was completed in time for the start of the fall quarter.

In 1975 the building was renamed Davidson Hall in honor of J. Brownlee Davidson who served as head of Agricultural Engineering from 1919 to 1946.