ITEMS

The Old AC Graphic

The Old Arc graphic for The Built Environment exhibit at USU's Merrill-Cazier library.

2018-02

03-The Old AC.pdf

The Old AC

As Utah's land-grant institution, USU initially promoted vocation skills paired with a liberal education. These skills included agriculture, mechanical, and domestic arts. The built environment reflected this mission through the physical presence of agriculture on campus. However, by 1954, an expanding curriculum and student body required relocating the remaining agricultural facilities elsewhere.

Model Barn (1891-1919)
Supplied with the best equipment available, the model barn served as an agricultural laboratory, where students received hans-on instruction in animal husbandry. Its close proximity to Old Main provoked the student newspaper to complain of the "delightful odors." In 1919, local tradesmen paid the college $100 to salvage the structure.

President's House (1891-)
The college originally built the structure to house the Domestic Science Department in 1891. However, President Jeremiah W. Sanborn decided to make it his family residence. USU's first 13 presidents, with the exception of J. H. Paul, lived and raised families in the shadow of Old Main. Following President Stanford Cazier's relocation in 1983, the university converted the President's House to an alumni center named in honor of David B. Haight in 1990.

Mechanic Arts Building (1897-1984)
Built in 1897, the Mechanic Arts Building housed woodworking, blacksmithing, and mechanics shops. In 1904, a fire destroyed the building, along with many of the college's early records. Emergency funding enabled the rebuilding and modernization of the structure. As education focuses shifted, a variety of programs, including Landscape Architecture and Communicative Disorders, called the Mechanic Arts Building home. Condemned following the 1962 earthquake, the structure nonetheless received continued use until its demolition in 1984.

E.G. Peterson Agricultural Science Building (1957-2012) Although the on-campus barns relocated in the 1950s, the campus retained its agricultural heritage through the E.G. Peterson Agricultural Science Building. The building opened for classes in 1957 and housed the College of Agriculture along with the Experiment Station and Extension Services until its demolition in 2012. The construction site of the new Life Sciences Building occupies the location of the former Agricultural Science Building.

Art Barn (1919-2015)
The peculiar white barn formerly occupying the USU Credit Union and Welcome Center site was the last agricultural facility located on campus. Constructed in 1919 to replace the model barn, the facility served agricultural purposes until 1959, when the Art Department converted it to a ceramics studio. The Art Barn continued as a classroom and office space until its demolition in 2015.