One of Michigan State University’s most historic buildings has undergone a major renovation and is housing a new tenant.
The building is Chittenden Hall, built in 1901. The new tenant is the MSU Graduate School, now marking the 20th anniversary of its existence in its current organizational structure.
When originally built, Chittenden Hall was home to the dairy plant of what was then known as the State Agricultural College.
For much of its life, Chittenden was home to the Department of Forestry. In fact, the building is named in honor of Alfred K. Chittenden, who directed the university’s forestry programs from 1914 to 1930.
As home to the MSU Graduate School, Chittenden will provide renovated office space, workshop space, conference rooms, a student lounge and an outdoor terrace with picnic tables. The Council of Graduate Students also will be housed in the facility.
The restoration paid particular attention to the historic character of the building. Many original elements, such as blackboards, wood flooring and wainscoting, were retained.
The Graduate School has slowly been making the move from its former location in Linton Hall since September.
“Graduate education is a vital component of higher education and, on this campus, deserves a space such as Chittenden Hall to call its home,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. “It’s an appropriate acknowledgement of the importance of graduate study on the 20th anniversary of the Graduate School.”
Karen Klomparens, dean of the Graduate School, said the new facility will help facilitate the school’s mission of serving as an advocate for MSU’s more than 11,000 graduate and graduate-professional students.
“We’re now able to house staff that were located in three different locations across campus,” she said. “We’re better able to provide assistance to faculty, graduate and graduate-professional students, as well as post-docs, in one location.”
The original cost of the building was $15,000. After the dairy program moved to a new facility in 1913, the forest department moved in and the building was re-named the Forestry Building.
Forestry resided there until the 1960s. Since then a number of programs and units have called Chittenden home.
Chittenden Hall is part of what was once known as Laboratory Row, a semi-circle of buildings consisting of Eustace-Cole Hall, Cook Hall, Old Botany, Marshall Hall and Morrill Hall, which was torn down in 2013.
These buildings were all constructed between 1888 and 1902 along the road now known as Circle Drive.
For more information on the MSU Graduate School, please visit http://grad.msu.edu/.