Memorial Hall was built in 1920-1921 to commemorate the service of alumni and faculty who died in World War I and to be the center of student social life. Veterans of the First World War and subsequent wars are commemorated via a series of memorials, benches and foliage on and around the building. At one time, the building housed a variety of student organizations and sported a recreation room, a billiard room, and basement bowling alley. Funded largely from alumni donations and originally owned by the Alumni Association, Memorial Hall was deeded to the University in 1998. It now houses the Alumni and Development offices and is used for campus meetings and presentations.
Helen Curtis Cole Garden, dedicated in 1999 to Helen Curtis Cole (1909-2007) as first Dean of Women (1945-1973). The inscription read: "Helen Curtis Cole Garden Site, Dean of Women 1945-1973. Energetic advocate of women's education." Cole lead coeducation on the campus during the tumultuous post World War II era and was a vocal advocate for women's education and career advancement. The garden is located between Goodell and the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.
The Massachusetts Agricultural College Pioneer Class of 1871 planted the first set of trees on the college campus on April 29, 1869, during their sophomore year. In 1912 a stone memorial was dedicated with much fanfare. The 27 elms were the first of many subsequent class gifts given to the college in the form of trees. The monument was placed in front of South College and is no longer there.
Plaque in memory of Kenyon Leech Butterfield and William Daniel Hurd "who in this building (1909-1918) laid the foundation for extension service in American rural life." The origins of the plaque is uncertain, but may be referring to South College, as their offices were so located. Kenyon L. Butterfield (1889-1945) served as President of Massachusetts Agricultural College from 1906-1924. Butterfield was also a writer, lecturer, editor, and organizer of the “Rural Life Movement”. William D. Hurd (1875-1924) graduated from Michigan Agricultural College in 1899 and later received the degree of Master of Agriculture from the same institution. After various other appointments in 1909 he became Director of Short Courses at the Massachusetts Agricultural College and from 1910-1919 was Director of Extension Service and Supervisor of Short Courses. Butterfield and Hurd worked together to promote the Cooperative Extension Service. The plaque was to created to honor their lives and work on the 25th anniversary of the Smith Lever Act of 1914, in 1939.
Arthur G. Pollard (1843-1930) was an active Massachusetts businessman, as well as a trustee of Massachusetts Agricultural College from 1905 to 1915 and 1916 to1928. The origins and original location of the Pollard dedication plaque are unknown.
Plaque honoring the July 21,1871 Massachusetts Agricultural College (M.A.C.) rowing team's winning crew in their upset victory against rivals Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, and Harvard. "Here come the farmers" was among the winning refrains uttered by newspapers and the M.A.C. college president alike. In 1907 a Trophy Room was established in North College (no longer extant) where the relic of the shell was displayed, mostly likely with the "Winning Crew" plaque and "College Regatta" banner. By 1956 campus maps show North College slated for demolition and the plaque and other regalia would have been removed from the site prior to that date.
In 1956 the Thayer Building was created as an isolation lab for the study of diseases of large animals. On June 1, 1957 the building was dedicated to Eleanor A. Thayer as a gift of Red Acre Farm, Inc. of Stow, MA. The building came to be as part of the efforts of Red Acre Farm founder, Miss Harriet G. Bird, who "started her Red Acre Farm with one Black horse, $8, and vision." One of these visions was a place to formally study animal health. According to Red Acre Farm's history: "In 1955, another of Miss Bird's dreams touched reality. At its May 10 meeting, the Board of Directors voted to give the University of Massachusetts $50,000 for the construction of a veterinary hospital for research work connected with ailments of large animals. According to the minutes of that meeting, 'Two years ago Miss Bird reported to the Annual Meeting regarding her interest and effort to have legislation enacted favoring a college in Massachusetts for the education and training of veterinary students. It was later learned that it was advisable to suspend any effort in connection with such a project at that time. The matter of training students and research work with respect to disease in animals, has however, still held a place in our Treasurer's plans, and has found an outlet in the proposed building to be erected on the grounds of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to be used for the investigation of disease of large animals. The building will be known as the 'Thayer Building'./The building was named in memory of Miss Eleanor Thayer, daughter of longtime Red Acre Farm, Inc. officer Ethel Thayer. The project was funded through the sale of shares of stock." In 2014 Thayer Laboratory was razed and assumingly the dedication memorial plaque was acquired by UMass Special Collections at the time.
Plaque presumably adhered to Chenoweth Laboratory honoring Walter Winfred Chenoweth (1871-1945), professor of Pomology and Horticulture 1912-1941, and founder and first Dept. Head of the Food Science and Technology Dept. 1918-1941. The Laboratory was built 1920 and an addition was added in 1966. The origins and history of the plaque are unknown.
Phi Sigma Kappa Memorial honors the third secret society on the Massachusetts Agricultural College campus. On March 15th, 1873 Phi Sigma Kappa was founded by Jabez William Clay, Joseph Francis Barrett, Henry Hague, Xenos Young Clark, Frederick George Campbell, and William Penn Brooks in North College. After some hesitation the fraternity was expanded to a nationwide organization, and chapters at Cornell University, University of Maryland, George Washington University, and University of Pennsylvania were created and still remain active to this day. The original Phi Sigma Kappa Memorial was dedicated in 1923 for the Society's 50th anniversary, and included a granite fragment of "Big Chief" Barrett's birthplace in Barre, Massachusetts. While North College was demolished circa 1960 the Phi Sigma Kappa Memorial was later adhered to the exterior of Machmer Hall. Given the August 8, 1973 dedication marker honoring the founding members that sits beside the original memorial, it is assumed that both markers were installed onto Machmer at this time.
Class of 1955 Garden, dedicated in 2005, located North of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. The inscription reads: "Class of 1955 Garden. Given on the occasion of their 50th reunion."
Garden created in honor of Oswald Tippo (1911-1999), professor of botany (1971-1972), former provost (1964-1970), and first chancellor (1970-1971) of the University of Massachusetts system. The garden was dedicated on 11 October 1999.
Class of 1950 gift to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The gift was a larger than life-sized bronze statue of a Minuteman - the University's mascot - was dedicated on Oct. 12, 2002. The statue, sculpted by John F. Townsend, a retired UMass art professor, is situated on a small hill between Old Chapel and the Campus Pond. According to Donald R. Progulske, a retired professor of natural resources conservation and member of the Class of 1950 Gift Committee, class members were canvassed at their 45th reunion in 1995 and decided on the Minuteman statue. "Our class was the veterans class," Progulske says. "There were about 1,100 men and women in the class, and at least 900 of them were veterans. We chose the Minuteman because it is a patriotic symbol." Minutemen were citizen soldiers during the American Revolution who pledged to be ready to fight at a minute’s notice. The statue cost approximately $100,000. In 2005 the Class of 1956, for the occasion of their 50th reunion, planned their Minuteman Crossing class gift. In 2007 a public plaza surrounding the Minuteman statue was built, and includes a circular terrace with walls made of local Ashfield stone. John Sendelbach, a local landscape architect and stonemason/artist was enlisted to assist in designing the project.
Series of Class of 1921 benches gifted to the university. The benches are located around the Campus Pond, Herter Hall, Memorial Hall, and on the Wilder Patio.
Metawampe Monument is a nearly life-sized bronze statue and lawn dedicated to the legendary local Nonotuck Indian chief who sold land north of Mt. Toby to settlers in 1674, which the University eventually acquired. The sculpture was a gift from the class of 1950, was sculpted by retired Art Professor John F. Townsend, and dedicated on February 11, 1951. Prior to this the legendary Metawampe had appeared on campus around 1907 when the Massachusetts Agricultural College's faculty outing club, the Mountain Club, was later organized as “the Metawampe Club.” In 1948 undergraduates to the newly reorganized University of Massachusetts campaigned to adopt a University appropriate mascot, and "The Redman" was chosen. Interest in Metawampe subsequently grew and he was often referred to as “the legendary spirit of the University.” By the 1970s new demands of consciousness regarding race and ethnicity sparked change on the campus, and in 1972 the campus mascot was switched to "The Minuteman." Originally the Metawampe statue was placed atop a stone on the lawn in front of Memorial Hall and was later moved near the southeast corner of the Student Union, where it was placed on a granite pedestal provided by the class of 1956. On Aug. 27, 2014, after being displaced by the construction of the new Integrative Learning Center, the Metawampe statue was moved once again to its new permanent home outside that building.
Plaque to honor President Butterfield's service to Massachusetts Agricultural College. The plaque reads: "Presented to President Kenyon L. Butterfield by the Alumni, Massachusetts Agricultural College, in grateful recognition of his distinguished service, 1906-1924." Kenyon L. Butterfield served as President of Massachusetts Agricultural College from 1906-1924. The original and current location of the plaque is unknown.
The elegant glass Durfee Conservatory was first erected in 1867 on the Massachusetts Agricultural College campus, at the instigation of college president William S. Clark (1867-1879) who was smitten with London's Botanical Gardens, and with the financial support of college trustee, Dr. Nathan Durfee, who gave $10,000 to complete the project. The building was heated and had glass rooms that included a Dry Stove room for cacti and succulent plants, a Moist Stove room for tropical species, a Palm House for larger species of tropical trees and shrubs, a Camellia House for cool temperate zone trees and shrubs, and a Victoria House for aquatic and air plants. Work rooms were also attached. In 1883, a fire severely damaged the building and it was slowly rebuilt and put back into order. After years of use, and later disrepair, the original structure was torn down and replaced in 1954 with a new greenhouse structure that remains to this day.
The 1867 Botanical Museum was one of the first five buildings situated on the newly established Massachusetts Agricultural College campus. Located near the Durfee Conservatory the museum initially housed President William Smith Clark's office, a recitation/herbarium, and a laboratory on the first floor, as well as the museum proper on the second. According to the college's Tenth Annual Report in 1873, the museum was "supplied with many interesting and useful specimens of seeds, woods, and fruit-models. There is, also, a set of diagrams, illustrating structural and systematic botany, including about 3,000 figures." The Report also notes that the museum was valued at $5,000. In 1967 the Botanical Museum was destroyed by fire; presumably at this time the museum's dedication memorial plaque was obtained for posterity.
Dedication plaque honoring George Franklin Mills (1839-1924) upon the erection of the residential hall named in his honor in 1948. Mills was a Professor of Latin and English from 1890-1914, Head of Humanities from 1907-1910, and Dean of Massachusetts Agricultural College from 1907-1914. The George F. Mills House, renamed New Africa House, is now a Black cultural center and houses the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, the Augusta Savage Gallery, the Center for Women and Community, and the University's Center for Counseling and Psychological Health. Built in 1948 by architect Lewis Warren Ross, the building underwent renovations in 2010 as part of the Obama era American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies. The name of the building was changed from Mills House to New Africa House following a Black student takeover of the dorm in the spring of 1970. After negotiations with university officials, an agreement was made that the dorm would be renamed "New Africa" and the newly formed African-American studies department would relocate its offices there. It is unknown when the plaque was removed from the building and rehoused in the University Archives.
In 1889 the Massachusetts Agricultural College erected the Insectary/ Entomology Building for the study of insects, in particular those insects that could further pest management practices in agriculture. The Insectary was built on what would become Stockbridge Road, next to where Fernald Hall is today. After construction of a new Economic Entomology building (Fernald Hall, 1909-1910) was erected the Entomology Building became the Mathematics Building. In 1938 a plaque was adhered to the Mathematics Building (original Economic Entomology Building) to honor the role of the field in the college's history and to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Charles Henry Fernald to MAC for his efforts on its behalf. In 1965 the building was demolished and at some point after its destruction the 1938 dedication plaque was acquired by UMass Special Collections.
Plaque adhered to the Q.T.V. fraternity house on South Pleasant Street in 1965 and dedicated to their order, the second fraternal society to be established on the Massachusetts Agricultural College campus, in 1869. The fraternity has since been disbanded. Q.T.V. formed on May 12, 1869 in the South College dormitories on the Mass Aggie campus. It is the only Latin lettered fraternity in the United States. Q.T.V., reportedly so named after the fraternity’s motto, which was disclosed to members upon initiation and is unknown today. Upon formation this local organization quickly grew and by 1874 it went national with other agricultural colleges. In 1917 the fraternity purchased the former home of Captain Fearing of Amherst, on the corner of Fearing Street and North Pleasant. According to rumor the large white home was used by Captain Fearing to hide runaway slaves on they way to Canada during the Civil War. The house was used for decades by the society but after years of struggling financially the building was deemed a fire hazard and torn down in 1965, and soon after a new brick structure took its place. Today the site is occupied by the Department of Communication Disorders.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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The Class of 1967 Campus Memorial & Monuments Tour highlights the rich legacy of alumni giving and participation on the University of Massachusetts campus, from 1867 to today. See the buildings, structures, monuments, plaques, gardens, sculptures, trees, and benches that tell the story of a century and a half of generosity, courtesy of the Class of 1967.
