GREENHOUSE

The need for a greenhouse was first stated in the Biennial Report for 1876-77:

We also need a neat, durable and commodious Propagating House, not in the way of a show Green House stocked with rare and expensive plants, but mainly for the propagation and winter preservation of bedding plants needed in the flower borders, for the propagation of plants for study in the Botanical classes, and most important of all for the propagation of plants, small fruits, shrubs, etc., for the vegetable garden and nurseries. Built in neat modern style, of brick, iron and glass with best heating apparatus; the cost of such a structure would not exceed twenty-five hundred dollars.

State funds were not forthcoming, but a solution was reached as reported in The Aurora of April 1879: “Our last legislature, wisely or unwisely, refused to grant an appropriation for building a greenhouse. Yet ‘where there’s a will, there is a way’. Prof. Budd improvised a neat little plant room at the horticulture laboratory which is like a New York omnibus, as it will always hold one more flower.”

This greenhouse served, though inadequately, until the Experiment Station Building (Bevier Hall) was built with its propagating house in 1888.¹ It continued in use for another few years until it was razed in 1894.

(The Horticulture Laboratory referred to here is the building carried under the name Farm Boarding Club.)