University of New Hampshire - Granite Yearbook (Durham, NH)

Page 15 text:

The legislature quickly enacted the necessary decrees, and in 1891i the senior class held its graduation. exercises in a cow barn, the first building erected on the campus. As rapidly as possible after this, the state built four other buildings: Thompson Hall, Conant Hall, Nesmith, Hall and a building to house the college shops. A11 these are still in use. uT', Hall, little changed, still houses the offices of the President and other ad- ministrative oiiicers. The others have been enlarged and remodelled beyond all recognition of the original structures. 'The most marked effect of the new en- vironment Was an increased enrollment, and in 1893, when the new buildings became ready for occupancy, there were sixty-four students, ten of whom were women. There had been but one woman student in all the previous years of the existence of the college. - Thompson H all

Page 14 text:

eventy-five Years HE history of the University of New Hampshire begins strangely enough at Hanover in the year 1866 when the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts was established by the state in conjunction with Dartmouth college. As a small, unappreciated branch of the famous old school, it con- tinued there for twenty years with an average enrollment of only twenty-five. Wlmen, however, in 1890 Benjamin Thompson, a wealthy farmer of Durham, died and the terms of his will were made known, the situation changed complete- ly. This eccentric lovable old man had bequeathed his entire estate to the people of New Hampshire for the es- tablishment of a state agricultural col- lege in Durham. The Water Tower

Page 16 text:

It soon became apparent that most of the Woman students and a good many of the men could not accurately be clas- sified in either of the categories which the name of the institution suggested. Wllen, then, in 1914-, constant expansion made some administrative division es- sential, the college was divided into the T Hall Walk