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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.

Old Stores Building/Cryophysiology Laboratory/Food Service Storage Building/Electrical Supply Building/Braiden Kitchen, 1948-1995

A one-story white building with another building is viewed from the street, with a smoke stack in the background.

Braiden Kitchen, 1954

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.

Designer / Architect – United States Government

Builder – Brown-Schrepferman Construction Company of Englewood, Colorado

Located next to the railroad tracks north of the original Braiden Hall and west of the Student Union Annex, this was a war surplus wooden building that originally served as a kitchen and food storage facility for the original Braiden Hall in its first years of occupancy.

In 1947, it had been disassembled and brought up from the Pueblo Army Air Base at Pueblo, Colorado. The reconstructed building was designated to be used as a kitchen for the residents in Braiden Hall and South Hall to relieve crowded kitchen conditions in the Johnson Hall Student Union.  Reconstructed on the Aggie campus by the Brown - Schrepferman Construction Company of Englewood, Colorado, it was ready for use in early 1948 although Braiden Hall did not open for use until the fall quarter of 1948.

With the opening of the Student Union Annex in 1951 and its expanded kitchen and dining facilities, the kitchen was retired, and the building became used partially for food service storage and partially for storage of supplies of “self-liquidating enterprises” on the campus.  It was also being used as a shop for the “electrical supply section” of the Buildings and Grounds Department.  The campus map for 1959 shows the building as “Electrical Supply”.  Campus maps for 1959 through 1961 show the building as “Food Service Storage”.

The building became Professor of Physiology Frank E. South’s “Cryophysiology Laboratory” about 1963 according to listings in the 1963-64 Directory.  Dr. South and his assistant William Anthony did research on hibernating mammals at CSU through the spring of 1965.  The building was still being listed by that name in 1974.  A 1973-1974 campus map shows it as the Cryophysiology Laboratory while a 1974-1975 campus map shows it as the “Old Stores Building”.

In late 1994, the structure was still shown on campus maps but was not included on the list of buildings to be included in the “CSU Historic Preservation District” being created by the Administration.  The building appears to have demolished in early 1995 as it no longer appeared on the 1995-96 campus map.  The site is now where the external cooling tower equipment of the “District Cooling Utility Plant No. 1”, built in 1997, is located.

Sources by Gordon A. Hazard

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, April 9, 1947, page 213.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, October 3, 1947, page 1, vol. LVII, number 1.

The Colorado State College Alumnus, September - October 1947, pages 2 and 7, vol. XXVI, number 14.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, October 24, 1947, page 10, col. 1, vol. LVII, number 4.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, November 21, 1947, page 2, vol. LVII, number 8.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, January 17, 1948, page 295.

The Colorado State College Alumnus, January, page 4, vol. XXVII, number 1.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, May 7, 1948, page 1, vol. LVII, number 26.

The Colorado State College Alumnus, May - June 1948, page 3, vol. XXVII, number 3.

1948-49 Directory of Students, Faculty and Employees, page 145.

1949-50 Directory of Students, Faculty and Employees, page 131.

“Long Range Development Program”, Report to the Colorado State Planning Commission, March 1952, pages 14, 29 and campus maps.

University Historic Photo Collection, image B5945C dated November 1954.

Summer Session Bulletins – Campus Maps 1958 through 1961.

“Colorado State University Directory 1959-1960”, page 88.

“Colorado State University Directory 1960-1961”, page 92.

The Colorado Aggie Alumnus, March – April 1962, page 6, vol. 37, number 7.

“Projections 1964”, booklet from the CSU Planning and Physical Plant, page 17.

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

“Affairs of CSU”, Spring 1970, vol. 9, number 1, page 4, “G. I. Bill” section.

Colorado State University Bulletin, Summer Sessions 1970, March 1970, vol. VII, number 5, campus map, pages 22-23.

Colorado State University Bulletin, Summer Sessions 1971, February 1971, vol. VIII, number 3, campus map, pages 46-47.

“1972-73 Colorado State University Directory”, Campus Map.

Colorado State University Bulletin Summer Quarter 1974, page 26.

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

The CSU Alumnus, September - October 1974, vol. 50, number 4, page 6.

Colorado State University Bulletin Summer Quarter 1975, page 26.

Colorado State University 1977 Summer Session Bulletin, March 1977, vol. XIV, Number 3, page 77.

Fort Collins Journal, October 26, 1977, page 1, vol. LXXXVI, number 56.

Colorado State University Comment, April 26, 1984, pages 1, 4- 5, vol. 14, number 30.

“1986-87 Colorado State University Directory”, Campus Map.

“1993-94 Colorado State University Directory”, Campus Map.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, October 11, 1994, 1-8a-z 1-1u-w.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, May 2, 1995, 1-12a-aa,1-1u-v.

“1995-96 Colorado State University Directory”, Campus Map.

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