GROUNDS COTTAGE

Original location where Gilman Hall addition stands now. Later moved twice.

For planning and construction see first paragraph under Farm Laborer’s Cottage.

In 1886 the Building Committee recommended the addition of a cheap porch. A water line was extended to the house in 1892.

The first tenant in the house was Jerry Sexton, gardener and custodian of the greenhouse. He occupied it until late in 1899, when the house was ordered vacated.

In January 1901 the cottage was repaired and fitted up for the new gardener, Al Duebendorfer.

By 1905 a decision was reached to provide a new house for the horticulture department and the old building was moved to a site west of the Marston Cottage. That would be about in the center of the south west wing of Helser Hall. The moving and repairs cost $1202.

In that location the cottage became the residence of Ben Edwards, superintendent of buildings and grounds, until 1910. It was subsequently occupied by grounds department employees until it was again moved in 1924. Its new site was on Wallace Road south of the Physical Plant area where it was the second from the east in the group of five employees houses along that street. It remained there until it was razed in 1970.