Agricultural Campus

Agricultural Campus Cultural Landscape Inventory December 2005 (Revisions December 2011) Quinn Evans|Architects University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Division of Facilities Planning and Management ©2011, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape Inventory DEFINITIONS What is a “cultural landscape”? The following document is based on concepts and techniques developed by the National Park Service. The NPS has produced a series of manuals for identifying, describing, and maintaining culturally significant landscapes within the national park system.1 The National Park Service defines a cultural landscape as a geographic area, including both cultural and natural resources and the wildlife or domestic animals therein[,] associated with a historic event, activity, or person, or [one] that exhibits other cultural or aesthetic values.2 In 1925, geographer Carl Sauer (1889-1975) summarized the process that creates cultural landscapes: “Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape the result.” 3 Similarly, the writer J. B. Jackson (1909-1996) looked upon the landscape as a composition of spaces made or modified by humans “to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence.”4 What is a “cultural landscape inventory”? 5 This cultural landscape inventory for the agricultural campus is one of eight such studies completed as part of the UW-Madison Cultural Landscape Resource Plan. Each inventory defines the boundaries of a distinct cultural landscape on campus, summarizes its history, describes its current condition, and makes recommendations about its treatment. In addition to these eight cultural landscape inventories, two companion documents address the archaeology and overall history of the campus. This collection of documents is collectively entitled “Cultural Landscape Report for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.” Within the national park system, a cultural landscape report (CLR) serves as the primary guide to the treatment and use of a cultural landscape. 1 The most recent and comprehensive of these publications is A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques, published in 1998. Its lead author, Robert R. Page, is director of the Olmsted Center for Landscape Studies, based at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Charleston, Massachusetts: http://www.nps.gov/oclp 2 Robert R. Page, Cathy A. Gilbert, and Susan A. Dolan, A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques (Washington, DC: U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Cultural Resource Stewardship and Partnerships, Park Historic Structures and Cultural Landscapes Program, 1998), 129. 3 Carl Sauer, “The Morphology of Landscape,” in Land and Life: A Selection from the Writings of Carl Ortwin Sauer, ed. John Leighly (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 343. 4 John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984), 8. 5 The term “cultural landscape inventory” is not to be confused with the NPS Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI), a computerized database of cultural landscapes within the national park system. Agricultural Campus (rev. 2011) Page 2 of 183 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape Inventory TABLE OF CONTENTS DEFINITIONS .............................................................2 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................4 NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA .................................8 GENERAL INFORMATION ...........................................9 KEY TO PLACE NAMES...............................................9 CHRONOLOGY .........................................................17 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE.................................26 LANDSCAPE HISTORY ..............................................32 EXISTING CONDITIONS ..........................................139 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................146 LANDSCAPE TREATMENT.......................................165 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................172 ILLUSTRATION CREDITS.........................................181 Prepared by: Brenda W. Williams Researched/Written by: Catherine Dammann with Cortney A. Cain, and Lee Sommerville Graphics/Images by: Catherine Dammann with Rebecca L. Marquardt, Jason Tisch, Xiaojian Yu, and Jonathan Hodkiewicz Project management by: Arnold R. Alanen, Gary Brown, and Sam Calvin Edited by: Daniel F. Einstein, Erika Janik and Susan O. Haswell This document may be reproduced for educational purposes. All other uses require permission from the UW-Madison Facilities Planning & Management. Contact: 608/263-3000. Agricultural Campus (rev. 2011) Page 3 of 183 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape Inventory ILLUSTRATIONS Figures General information...........................................................................................9 1 Location of agricultural campus landscape character areas, 2005 .....................14 2 Agricultural campus border and landscape character areas, 2005 .....................15 3 Landscape character areas with component landscapes, 2005...........................15 Landscape history ............................................................................................32 4 View from Bascom Hall of Observatory Hill, circa 1870-1891 ........................33 5 Platted section of the original experimental farm purchase, 1866 .....................37 6 Period plan, President Chadbourne’s tenure, 1867-1870...................................38 7 View of the former Daniel Read residence, 1899. .............................................41 8 Sketch of campus tree plantings, 1875...............................................................45 9 Sketch of farm superintendent’s house, circa 1900s ..........................................57 10 Period plan of agricultural campus and University Bay, 1892-1895 .................61 11 Period plan of agricultural campus, 1890-1894 .................................................62 12 Plat plan of farm properties, 1919......................................................................63 13 Plan of the grounds, O.C. Simonds, 1906 ..........................................................64 14 General design plan by Laird and Cret, 1908.....................................................66 15 Period plan for agricultural campus, 1900-1910................................................67 16 Lotus bed on University Bay, circa 1920s .........................................................78 17 Aquatic planting plan, Clyde Terrerll, 1927 ......................................................79 18 Period plan, agricultural campus, 1927-1932.....................................................82 19 Period plan, agricultural campus and University Bay, 1920s ............................83 20 Babcock Hall and adjacent buildings, 1951 .......................................................86 21 Short Course dormitory, Prof. Robert Muckenhirm, circa 1958........................86 22 View toward Lake Mendota from the experimental farm, 1927........................89 23 Period plan, agricultural campus and University Bay, 1940s ............................91 24 Map of experimental farm, circa 1875 ...............................................................92 25 Map of Washburn Observatory and surrounding grounds, 1880 .......................93 26 View of main barn and farm superintendent’s house, 1894...............................93 27 View of the experimental farm, circa 1898........................................................94 28 Cornfield on the southern slope of Observatory Hill, circa 1880s.....................94 29 Map of experimental farm, circa 1870s with circa 1890s notations ..................95 30 Detail of experimental farm, circa 1870s with circa 1890s notations ...............95 31 The Agricultural Dean’s Residence, circa 1896.................................................96 32 View of the agricultural experiment plots, circa 1896 .......................................96 33 Agricultural Hall, circa 1902..............................................................................97 34 View of Agricultural Hall, with new landscaping, circa 1904-08 .....................97 35 View of horse barn, winter, circa 1900s.............................................................98 36 View of horse barn, summer, circa 1900s..........................................................98 37 View of conifer collection corner of Linden and Elm Drives, circa 1904-15....99 38 View of lawn near corner of Linden and Elm Drives, circa 1909-15 ................99 39 View of lawn near corner of Linden and Elm Drives, circa 1916 ...................100 Agricultural Campus (rev. 2011) Page 4 of 183 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape Inventory 40 View of sheep grazing on pastoral lawn near Agricultural Hall, circa 1910s..100 41 View of educational garden plots near Russell and King Houses, 1912 ....... 101 42 Seed collection in agronomy department plot, circa 1920 ...............................101 43 View east on Linden Drive, circa 1900s ..........................................................102 44 View east on Linden Drive, circa 1904-1915 ..................................................102 45 View east on Linden Drive, circa 1904-1915 ..................................................103

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