Orchard Hill

In 1867 Dr. Nathan Durfee donated $10,000 towards the construction of a series of greenhouses on the Massachusetts Agricultural College campus. Architect T.A. Lord designed a series of five buildings which were named the Durfee Plant Houses after the…

The “Music Cottages” certainly qualify to be among Umass Amherst's lost heritage and landscape. In sincerity, identifying the buildings by this name nearly eliminates any proof that they ever existed. Photographs of the Old Infirmary Group buildings…

The Botanical Museum, constructed in 1867 for a total cost of $5,180, was one of the original four buildings built before the first class of students arrived in the fall of the same year. Erected behind the original Durfee Conservatory, the Botanical…

The establishment of the infirmary buildings was a direct response to the Scarlet Fever epidemic of 1912 that left four Massachusetts Agricultural College students dead. The infirmary, which is now known as the University Health Services, did not…

Massachusetts Agricultural College built the Insectary in 1888 in order to provide a space to cultivate the study of insects, specifically those that were harming plants across the state. The Insectary was built on what would become Stockbridge…

In 1886, the administration of the Massachussetts Agricultural College (MAC) appointed Dr. Charles Henry Fernald, one of the most distinguished experts in entomology and zoology, as a professor of zoology and lecturer in the Veterinary Sciences…

Mills House was a former dormitory in the Central Residential Area of the UMass Campus. In 1970, Mills House was shut down as a dormitory and shortly after reopened as what today is known as the New Africa House, an academic space and home of the…

The McIntire House, built in 1928, was the home of the late H. Ruth McIntire, a professor of Cooperative Extension for 34 years until her retirement in 1958. In 1967, McIntire donated the house, along with 1.7 acres of land, to the university in…