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CSU Archives and Special Collections

CSU Buildings and Grounds History

A history of CSU's building and grounds from 1870 to the present.

Preschool Laboratory/Home Economics Practice House/Apiary/Botany Building/Veterinary Hospital Annex-Pathology Laboratory, 1908-1973

Several children and an adult are entering a door of a building with a sign reading "Preschool Laboratory, Colorado State College".

Preschool Laboratory, 1936

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.

At first, this small wood-framed building constructed in 1908 was used primarily for work related to veterinary medicine as a pathology laboratory and was part of the original veterinary hospital complex along West Laurel Street. After the new veterinary hospital was opened in the fall of 1920, this building was used by the Botany department. In the late 1920s, it was taken over by Entomology professor, Dr. Charles R. Jones and his hives of honeybees for use as the Apiary. Prior to this time, the Apiary consisted of two small buildings west of the Civil and Irrigation Engineering Building.

The building was next used for a while as the Summer Practice House by students in the Department of Home Economics.  After extensive remodeling during the summer of 1936, it was used by the department as a preschool facility to serve 20 children and their student observers studying child development and preschool techniques. In 1972, the Early Childhood Center, as it was now known, moved into Rockwell Hall.  The vacated preschool building, deteriorating due to seepage from the nearby Arthur Ditch, was demolished during the summer of 1973. Lawn and spruce trees now occupy this site near the Meldrum Street entrance to campus.

Sources by Gordon A. Hazard

“Silver Spruce – 1915”, page 16, vol. 4.

State Board of Agriculture Executive Committee Minutes, February 27, 1920, page 102.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, September 16, 1920, page 1, vol. XXX, number 1.

Colorado Agricultural College Bulletin, Catalog 1921-1922, series XXI, number 3, published April 1921, 357A Bee Keeping, p. 83.

Colorado Agricultural College Bulletin, Catalog 1922-1923, series XXI, number 8, published March 1922, 409 Beekeeping and 410 Advanced Beekeeping, pp. 84-85.

State Board of Agriculture Executive Committee Minutes, July 21, 1928, page 484.

State Board of Agriculture Executive Committee Minutes, August 25, 1928, page 486.

University Historic Photo Collection, UHPCSNP_5637.tif, dated December 1, 1928.

University Historic Photo Collection, UHPCSNP_5638.tif, dated December 1, 1928.

University Historic Photo Collection, UHPCSNP_11955.tif, dated August 12, 1929.

University Historic Photo Collection, UHPCSNP_11956.tif, dated August 12, 1929.

University Historic Photo Collection, UHPCSNP_11957.tif, dated August 12, 1929.

University Historic Photo Collection, UHPCSNP_11958.tif, dated August 12, 1929.

“51st Annual Catalog of Colorado Agricultural College, 1930-31”, January 1930, series 28, number 7, page 93.

University Historic Photo Collection, UHPCSNP_8169.tif, dated July 1936.

The Colorado Aggie Alumnus, August 1936, page 4, vol. 17, number 3.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, September 11, 1936, page 3, col. 6-7, vol. XLVI, number 1.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, October 7, 1936, page 2, col. 4, vol. XLVI, number 5.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, March 11, 1937, page 5, col. 4, vol. XLVI, number 25.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, December 7, 1939, page 3, vol. XLIX, number 14.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, May 14, 1942, page 3, col. 6, vol. LI, number 34.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, October 28, 1949, page 20, col. 1-4, vol. LIX, number 6.

Colorado A&M News, February 1950, page 10, col. 3, vol. 4, number 8.

“1950 Silver Spruce”, pages 101, 104, vol. 45.

“Long Range Development Program”, Report to the Colorado State Planning Commission, March 1952, pages 12, 20, 41 and campus maps, LD1145.8, A452, 1952.

1953 Silver Spruce Yearbook photo, page 142.

The Colorado Aggie Alumnus, January – February 1954, pages 6-7, vol. 30, number 4.

University Historic Photo Collection, image B6023B dated January 1955.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, May 29, 1956, page 3, vol. LXV, number 39.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, May 28, 1957, page 4, vol. LXV, number 56.

CSU Collegian, August 29, 1968, page 14, vol. LXXVII, number 1.

CSU Collegian, February 16, 1971, page 5, vol. LXXIX, number 80.

CSU Collegian, March 2, 1971, pages 4 and 6, vol. LXXIX, number 90.

CSU Collegian, June 22, 1972, page 4, vol. LXXXI, number 2.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, November 9, 1972, page 4, vol. LXXXI, number 43.

Colorado State University Bulletin Summer Quarter 1973, page 26.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, April 26, 1973, page 1, vol. LXXXI, number 122.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, May 9, 1973, page 356.

The CSU Alumnus, May–June 1973, vol. 49, number 3, page 7.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, January 21, 1974, page 7, vol. LXXXII, number 64.

“A History of Colorado State University 1870 – 1974”, by James E. Hansen II, 1974.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, April 7, 1975, page 2, vol. LXXXIII, number 105.

CSU Comments, April 10, 1975, pages 1-2, vol. 5, number 29.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, September 22, 1975, page 124.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, October 30, 1975, page 8, vol. LXXXIV, number 51.

Comment, February 7, 1991, page 1, vol. 21, number 17.

Comment, April 13, 2000, pages 1-2, vol. 30, number 27.

“Democracy’s University – A History of Colorado State University 1970–2003” by James E. Hansen II, 2007, p. 6.

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