GREENHOUSE

The need for more adequate greenhouse space to serve the college was expressed in the Biennial Report for 1894-95, and the cost of a suitable structure was estimated at $12,000. Funds were appropriated and bids were received in July 1896. Costs at that time amounted to $5142.50. Estimate for heating plant was $1250.

The greenhouse proper was L-shaped, with the north-south leg 60’ long by 34’ wide and the east-west leg 42’ long and 20’ wide. At the east end of that leg was a frame potting house. The greenhouse structure was built on a brick base.

When the Horticulture Laboratory was built in 1901 it replaced the potting shack which was “moved to the north side of the greenhouse, and there used for general construction work.”¹

Funds for greenhouses for Agronomy, Soils and Horticulture were made available through the proceeds of the one-fifth mill building tax then in force (1902).² These greenhouses were built as an addition, or extension, to the north of the 1896 greenhouse.

The new construction included a 65’ long by 12’ wide link extending north from the earlier building, to a 95’ by 42’ unit on an east-west axis. On the west side of it was a brick potting and storage building 75’ by 13’. This is the building known as the Ceramic Studio from 1969 to 1978. The greenhouses of 1896 and 1903 vintage were all razed in 1967 and 1968.