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Fig. 1. The original horticul-
ture building from the Linden
Street face, c. 1911. [series 9/
3 Horticulture, jf-37]
The horticulture building was built in 1910 to alleviate the crowding of the horticul-
ture department in King Hall. The east wing, called Moore Hall, was erected in 1930,
and the plant science addition to the west and south was built in 1980.
orticulture was one of the earliest disciplines in the college of agriculture. In 1893 dean
Henry had convinced the legislature to fund the construction of King Hall, constructed for
the study of horticulture and agricultural physics. Over the last years of the nineteenth cen-
tury and the first decade of the twentieth, the ground-breaking work of professor Franklin King and
his colleagues in the soils department needed an increasing amount of space, both in King Hall and in
the attached greenhouses. This expansion by soils put more and more pressure on the horticulture
department. In his report to the regents of 1908, president Van Hise says: "As soon as practicable an
entirely new horticulture building should be constructed to accommodate the department, and the
quarters now occupied by horticulture should be turned over to the soils department."I
Pursuant to this goal the board of regents instructed the university's supervising architect,
Arthur Peabody, to prepare plans for the "horticulture building to be located on the south side of
Linden Drive immediately south of the drive to the dairy building at a cost of approximately
$50,000...",2 On August 22, 1910, Mr. Peabody informed the regents that plans would be ready for
bids on September first. The executive Committee of the Board of Regents opened bids for the
horticulture building on September 26, 1910, and awarded the contract to the lowest bidder George
Keachie of Madison for the sum of $47,295. The contract called for the building to be begun by
October 3, 1910 and complete on or before October 15, 1911.
Following the monthly reports of supervising architect Peabody we see that by November
eighth, 1910, the foundations and basement were poured. In that same month a large shipment of
brick arrived on site but was so different from the sample given the maker that the brick was rejected.
By March 1911, the brick walls were up to the second floor, but work was halted for a week when
the Madison Brick yard ran out of brick. Roof construction began during June, 1911. But in August
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