Farm house

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

This 14 room structure was the first building on the Iowa State University campus. It was begun in 1860 when the college campus was prairie grass. Volunteers from the neighboring communities began construction on the house for the college farm just two years after the state legislature passed a measure in 1858 providing for the establishment of a State Agricultural College and Model Farm. It was the first building in the first state to accept the Morrill Act. It is where the very first Board of Trustees met and planned the first college building, and selected the first faculty for the college. While the college farm managers and superintendents lived in the house in 1860s, the house was also home to the first two presidents of Iowa State. Later, the Deans of Agriculture made it their home. College and university faculty lived in it for one hundred and ten years, from 1860 to 1970. The individuals who lived at the Farm House and worked for the college made significant contributions to the nation's agricultural policies. The house is a National Historic Landmark because of two of those individuals, James Tama Jim Wilson, who lived in the house during the 1890s, and Seaman Knapp in the 1880s. Today, the Farm House Museum serves the university community and visitors from around the world. It is open to the public, offering educational programs, tours, and activities that focus on the developing first fifty years of Iowa State, 1860 through 1910. Model was done by Andrew Temeyer. #Farm_House_Museum