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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.

Pathology Building, 1976

A light-colored three-story building with a sign reading 'Pathology Building" in the foreground.

Pathology Building, 1979

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 – Charles Ingalls and Associates of Fort Collins (original)

Builder – Reid Burton Construction Company of Fort Collins (original), CSU Facilities Management Remodel and Construction Services Section (Laboratory remodeling)

300 West Lake Street

In 1967, planning for a new building to house Pathology work for the College of Veterinary Medicine began. A 1970 campus map showed the proposed site for this building to be on the southeast corner of Center Avenue and Lake Street. However, the Pathology Building was eventually located on the southwest corner of East Drive and West Lake Street. Built on the site of a former trailer court, groundbreaking took place in December 1974. Designed by Chares Ingalls and Associates of Fort Collins, the $3,055,000 Pathology Building was built by the Reid Burton Construction Company of Fort Collins and completed in late 1976 followed by a massive move-in of equipment, research projects, and staff. January 1977 was the official opening of the new building serving the College of Veterinary Medicine.

It featured an electron microscope, radiation detection equipment and an incinerator to dispose of animal carcasses. This building houses offices, classrooms and labs for the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, which provides graduate study in the area of pathology. The detached incinerator on the south side of the building featured a narrow, square-shaped chimney that was as tall as the building.  It did not work as planned and was used for only a short time. It did give rise to some unintended humor when the Facilities Management Construction Office issued a memo about the problems with the “Pathological Incinerator”.

The building has provided offices for some of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ outstanding research scholars, including University Distinguished Professor Edward A. Hoover. Dr. Hoover was internationally renowned for his work involving animal diseases and developed a vaccine for feline leukemia that has saved millions of cats from this illness.

Sources by Gordon A. Hazard

CSU Collegian, February 5, 1968, page 3, vol. LXXVI, number 62.

CSU Collegian, September 29, 1969, page 1, vol. LXXVIII, number 10.

Colorado State University Bulletin, Summer Sessions 1970, March 1970, vol. VII, number 5.

CSU Collegian, August 14, 1970, page 1, vol. LXXVIII, number 158.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, August 15, 1970, page 403.

CSU Collegian, August 18, 1970, pages 1 and 3, vol. LXXVIII, number 159.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, September 25, 1970, page 417.

CSU Collegian, October 9, 1970, page 1, vol. LXXIX, number 14.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, October 30, 1970, pages 439 and 440.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, December 9, 1970, page 463.

CSU Collegian, January 6, 1971, page 8, vol. LXXIX, number 51.

CSU Collegian, February 11, 1971, page 7, vol. LXXIX, number 77.

Colorado State University Bulletin, Summer Sessions 1971, February 1971, vol. VIII, number 3.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, March 5, 1971, pages 496-497.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, November 3, 1972, page 243.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, June 29, 1973, pages 363 and 364.

CSU Comments, July 25, 1974, page 2, vol. 5, number 1.

The CSU Alumnus, September - October, 1974, vol. 50, number 4, page 2.

CSU Comments, November 14, 1974, page 2, vol. 5, number 13.

CSU Comments, January 9, 1975, page 6, vol. 5, number 16.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, March 27, 1975, page 29.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, April 25, 1975, page 42.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, January 30, 1976, page 9, vol. LXXXIV, number 87.

Fort Collins Journal, October 20, 1976, page 1, vol. LXXXV.

CSU Comments, January 20, 1977, page 5, vol. 7, number 18.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, September 6, 1985, page 10, vol. 94, number 23.

State Board of Agriculture Land: Chuck Terrell Conversation, October 26, 1992, page 5.

“Democracy’s University – A History of Colorado State University 1970 – 2003” by James E. Hansen II, 2007, pp. 73-74.

CSU Architects Alpha List, March 17, 2015, by James E. Hansen II, Ingalls and Associates.

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