CSU Buildings and Grounds History

Diversity House, 1946

From CSU's Sense of Place:  A Campus History of Colorado's Land-Grant University, by James E. Hansen, Gordon A. Hazard, and Linda M. Meyer.  Fort Collins, CO:  Colorado State University, 2018

Architect – Edwin A. Francis of Denver (1939 designed the house for the Wolfer family)

645 South Shields Street

The “President’s House” at the intersection of South Shields and West Laurel was first known by the College as “Greenhaven Farm”.  It was originally referred to as the “Wolfer Farm”.   The house served as the home to Presidents Roy M. Green, Isaac E. Newsom, William E. Morgan and Adrian Ray Chamberlain.  On March 12, 1946, the State Board of Agriculture reached an agreement to purchase the house and 75 acres of surrounding land from Mr. Clair F. Wolfer, an Aggie alumnus and local banker.  On November 18, 1948, the State Board purchased an additional 20 acres of contiguous land from Mr. Wolfer to complete the parcel.

According to Clair Wolfer’s daughter Nancy Voss, her father had had Denver based architect Edwin Francis design and build the colonial revival styled wood-framed house for his family. The original drawings of the residence, dated January 1939, are kept in the Denver Public Library’s Western History Department as WH1353.  Mr. Wolfer appears to have started purchasing the 95-acre tract west of Fort Collins in 1923.

On May 1, 1946, Colorado A & M College officially took possession of the property. President Roy M. Green and his family moved into the house that same month.  Using a play on words, the house was officially dedicated “Greenhaven Farm” as part of Commencement Day ceremonies on June 17, 1946. Following Dr. Green’s death in early January 1948, Dr. I. E. Newsom and his family lived in the house from late January 1948 until October 1949.  The Newsom family moved into another house in Fort Collins following his short stint as College President.

In late 1949, the house received some renovations along with a new stove, refrigerator and washing machine to accommodate the newly hired William E. Morgan and his family.  Dr. and Mrs. Newsom owned these appliances and took them with them when they moved out and into their next home in town.  Appliances were still hard to get during this post-war period.  The Morgan family lived in the Northern Hotel as they awaited the arrival of their furniture from Paris, France.  According to Mrs. Gladys Eddy, President Morgan did not like the nickname “Greenhaven Farm” and the dwelling was simply called the “President’s House”.  The Morgan family hosted many dinners and house guests during their twenty-year occupancy of the house. 

One of the early ideas was to use part of the 95-acre “Wolfer Farm” land as the site to relocate the College Dairy as moving these operations off the Main Campus were beginning to be considered.  Within a year, a large part of the land was put into use for the “Bull Farm” and a few years later, the Horse-Riding Stables and its pastures.  In May 1960, the State Board of Agriculture was considering an offer by the Sigma Nu fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority to purchase the house along with 12 acres of surrounding land.  Negotiations and discussions went on over the next year. In 1961, the land but not the house was sold for the construction of several fraternity and sorority houses.  That tract became known as Wagner Park.

In 1969, President William E. Morgan retired.  He and his wife moved into a house they owned in Fort Collins.  The President’s House received some renovations to accommodate the young family of the new President, Dr. A. R. Chamberlain.  The garage was converted into a family room during this renovation along with the northwest porch being enclosed and some other interior room changes.  The Chamberlain family lived in the house for the next ten years until he resigned from the University.  It was decided by the State Board of Agriculture that future presidents would receive a stipend and find their own house in which to live.  At their December 1978 meeting, the State Board of Agriculture voted to use the house for the Office of Alumni Relations and Development.

In July 1979, the house became the offices of the CSU Alumni Development Center and the newly formed CSU Foundation.  On Friday evening March 2, 1984, the front wall of the house was smashed in by a car whose driver who failed to stop at the red light at Laurel and Shields.  The damage was repaired.  A renovation of the house took place in 1989 that saw the southwest porch being enclosed and a new wet bar added along the north wall.  Early Saturday morning, October 28, 2000, a hit and run driver in a pickup truck crashed into the same part of the building doing $15,000 in damage.

In February 2005, ideas for constructing a new building to house the Alumni Center surfaced.  The sites being considered were near Green Hall.  The idea was eventually dropped and, in the summer of 2008, the Alumni Office moved into the former Tiley House at 1301 South College Avenue. Following some remodeling during the summer of 2008, the house became the offices of the Office of Conference Services and the Pingree Park administrative staff on October 16, 2008. 

In the fall of 2011, an announcement was made that in the spring of 2012, the old President’s House was to be vacated and was to be torn down to make way for a new parking lot.  The upcoming renovations to Durrell Center and the construction of “Academic Village North” on the Lory Apartment site, was felt to require more parking at that end of campus.  Where the Office of Conference Services and the Pingree Park staffs were to be relocated had not yet been decided.

By the spring of 2012, plans had changed so that the President’s House would remain standing until the new residence hall complex on West Laurel Street was opened.  Those plans had a parking lot being built around the house in the fall of 2012.  The final plans of “Academic Village North” (Laurel Village) had office space allotted for the Office of Conference Services and Pingree Park staffs.

In April 2014, as “Laurel Village” neared completion, the Office of Conference Services was renamed Conferences and Events Services.  In August 2014, Conference and Events Services moved into its new office complex on the first floor of Alpine Hall of Laurel Village.  The offices of the Vice President of Diversity moved over from Johnson Hall to become the next occupant.  645 South Shields Street began showing as “Diversity House” on campus maps.  A small parking area services the house.