POULTRY HOUSES
Hen Houses
The need for a hen house was first recorded in the January 1868 minutes of the Board. A hen house was built in 1871 as an addition to the Cattle Barn and is described under that heading.
In December 1874 the Board included in its legislative request an item of $1200 “for swine houses, corn cribs and Fowl Houses.”1 Not until 1880 were funds for those structures made available. A total of $158.22 was used for the Poultry House.2
By 1886 there had been a change in need because the minutes of the May meeting of the Board that year directed that the hen house be moved, rearranged and repaired for use as a swine house.
There is no way to determine just where these early, minor structures were located.
The IAC Student on May 14, 1892, records that “they’ve built a hen house near the grape patch.”
Subsequent buildings for poultry are covered separately and were built on the new Poultry Farm, which is the site where the Tower Residences are located now.