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Washington State University Tri-Cities
09/21/2012 | News release
Sept. 21: Open house celebrates Morrill Act land-grant anniversary
distributed by noodls on 09/18/2012 18:51
By Tina Hilding, College of Engineering and Architecture
| CEA buildings on the Pullman campus. |
PULLMAN, Wash. - The Washington State University College of Engineering and Architecture will host an open house and reception to celebrate the 150th anniversary of passage of the Morrill Act, which established land-grant institutions throughout the United States.
Featuring the college's research and student activities,
the open house will be at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, in
the Engineering Teaching and Research Laboratory (ETRL)
on the Pullman campus. A reception for alumni and friends
will follow at 5:30 p.m. on the lawn by Carpenter Hall.
To register for the reception, please go to http://www.cea.wsu.edu/150openhouse.
The Morrill Act, passed in 1862 and signed by Abraham
Lincoln, provided new opportunities for citizens to attain
higher education. WSU was founded with an emphasis on
agriculture and mechanic arts. Mechanic arts referred to
professional academic programs in engineering, mineralogy,
mining and metallurgy.
When classes began in 1892, WSU had engineering programs in mechanical engineering, civil engineering and electrical and mining engineering. Construction on the Mechanical Hall building, located where Daggy Hall now stands, started in 1893. Engineering classes later moved into a larger building when it was constructed in 1925, later named Carpenter Hall.
Civil engineering students helped with much of the campus' early engineering work, including surveying of roads and designing sewer and water systems.
An architecture program started on campus in 1911, making it one of the earliest in the West. The program's first two professors, Rudolph Weaver and Stanley Smith, designed many of the buildings on campus, including Carpenter, Wilson, Community, McCroskey and Stimson halls, as well as the president's residence and the Lewis Alumni Centre.
Chemical engineering started a few years later in 1917 as
part of the school's chemistry department.
That same year, Hubert V. Carpenter became the first dean
of the College of Mechanic Arts and Engineering.
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