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University Archives of Virginia Tech |
Time Line of the History of Virginia Tech
by Peter Wallenstein and Tamara Kennelly
1851
- Olin and Preston Institute established, a Methodist academy
1859
- Congress passes a bill, introduced by Vermont Congressman Justin S. Morrill, to help finance agricultural and mechanical education in every state, but President James B. Buchanan vetoes it on states' rights grounds
1862
- Congress passes, and President Abraham Lincoln signs, the Morrill Land-Grant College Act
1869
- Olin and Preston is rechartered as the Preston and Olin Institute
1872
- The Virginia legislature passes, and Governor Gilbert C. Walker signs, a bill establishing the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in Blacksburg for white male students and allocating two-thirds of the state's land-grant fund to it (Hampton Institute, a school for black students, gets the other one-third)
Charles L. C. Minor is VAMC's first president (1872-79)
VAMC acquires the one buildings and five acres of the Preston and Olin Institute for a campus and purchases "Solitude" (a house, other buildings, and 280 acres) for a farm
VAMC opens on October 1, with William Addison Caldwell the first student to enroll; enrollment reaches 132 during the 1872-73 school year
Virginia Agricultural & Mechanical College Catalogue of the Officers and Students, 1872
1875
- Twelve students are awarded three-year diplomas
Alumni Association is established
Virginia Agricultural & Mechanical College Catalogue of the Officers and Students, 1875
1876-77
- New buildings include the original president's house (now part of Henderson Hall) and the First and Second Academic Buildings (razed in 1957)
1879-82
- Political turbulence engulfs VAMC, turning over boards of visitors, presidents, and faculty
John L. Buchanan serves as president for two short periods
Professor John Hart is acting president for 1880-81 session
Enrollment drops to no more than 50
1882
- Thomas N. Conrad is VAMC's third president (1882-86)
1886
- L. L. Lomax is VAMC's fourth president (1886-91)
The legislature establishes the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station at VAMC
1887
- Congress passes the Hatch Act to finance agricultural research
1888
- No. 1 Barracks (Lane Hall) opens; it houses 150 cadets
1890
- Congress passes the Second Morrill Act, which supplies additional federal funding for Virginia's two land-grant schools
1891
- John M. McBryde is VAMC's fifth president (1891-1907)
Athletic Association is established
1892
- VAMC confers its first master's degree, to Charles M. McBryde
1894-95
- Enrollment first tops 300
First issue of the VAMC yearbook, The Bugle
1896
- A change of name to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute (immediately shortened informally to Virginia Polytechnic Institute)
VPI motto adopted: "Ut Prosim" ("That I May Serve")
New school colors-Chicago maroon and burnt orange
1901
- Completion of the YMCA Building (today's Performing Arts Building), the first major edifice constructed of what would later be called "Hokie Stone." "Laying the Corner Stone of YMCA Building," c1898-99.
1902
- The President's House is completed
1903
- The Virginia Tech established as a student newspaper (later, in 1970, renamed the Collegiate Times)
Mary G. Lacy appointed VPI's first professional librarian
1907
- Paul B. Barringer VPI's sixth president (1907-13)
Entrance to VPI in 1907 (The Preston and Olin Building)
1913
- Joseph D. Eggleston VPI's seventh president (1913-19)
1914
- Congress passes the Smith-Lever Act, which funds home demonstration and other agricultural extension work by the nation's land-grant schools
1919
- Julian A. Burruss VPI's eighth president (1919-45), the first VPI alumnus to serve as president and the first (in 1921) to have a Ph.D.
1920
- The legislature designates Virginia State College, instead of Hampton Institute, the black land-grant school
1921
- Burruss convinces the board of visitors to permit white women to enroll at VPI, and five full-time women students do so
1922
- Golden Jubilee celebration of VPI's first fifty years
Bachelor's degrees first top 100
1923
- Mary Brumfield first woman to graduate from VPI; becomes a graduate student and earns a master's degree in 1925
1924
- Participation in the Corps of Cadets becomes optional for juniors and seniors
1925
- Four members (or recent members) of the VPI faculty organize what becomes, by 1928, the Future Farmers of America
First issue of The Tinhorn, the yearbook of the women students.
1926
- The War Memorial Gymnasium is completed
1936-40
- The completion of massive new construction (of what would later be named Burruss Hall, Squires, Eggleston, Owens, Smyth, Hutcheson, Hillcrest, Holden, and other buildings), financed in large part by New Deal programs, transforms the VPI campus
1942
- Nathan Sugarman, Tech's first Ph.D., in chemistry
1944
- VPI is linked with Radford College (until 1964); the consolidated school gets its first women members of the BOV
1945
- John R. Hutcheson VPI's ninth president (1945-47)
1947
- Walter S. Newman VPI's tenth president (1947-62)
1947-48
- Enrollment first tops 5,000, propelled by the GI Bill
1949
- Total degrees granted in one year first top 1,000
Three new barracks are completed and dedicated to VPI's three World War II Congressional Medal of Honor recipients: Robert Femoyer, James Monteith, and Herbert Thomas
1953
- Irving L. Peddrew III enrolls as Tech's first African American student (and the first black undergraduate at a white land-grant school in the former Confederate South)
- Betty Delores Stough, Tech's first female Ph.D., in parasitology
1958
- Charlie L. Yates , in mechanical engineering, with honors, VPI's first black graduate (before any state university, or any other white land-grant school, in the eleven states of the former Confederacy)
1960
- War Memorial Chapel is completed to honor the fallen VPI soldiers of World War II-and later of all wars
1962
- T. Marshall Hahn, Jr. VPI's eleventh president (1962-74)
1964
- The Corps of Cadets becomes optional for all male freshmen and sophomores
VPI separates from Radford College and begins to become fully coeducational
VPI reorganized into colleges: Engineering, Agriculture, Business, Home Economics, Architecture, and Arts and Sciences
William Walker Lewis Jr. '64, Tech's first Rhodes Scholar
1965
- Lane Stadium and Cassell Coliseum are completed
1966
- Six black women enroll at VPI
Cadets and civilians form a combined Student Government Association
An Extension Division combines all extension activities, agricultural and engineering
1967
- Doctoral degrees first top 100
- Jerry Gaines , a freshman, is granted an athletic scholarship and joins the track team, Tech's first black athlete
1967-68
- Enrollment first tops 10,000
Linda Adams '68 is Tech's first black female graduate
1969
- Faculty Association established
- Overton Johnson is Tech's first black faculty member
1970
- New name: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Bachelor's degrees first top 2,000
1972
- Virginia Tech celebrates its first 100 years
Tech alumnus and professor Duncan Lyle Kinnear publishes a centennial history, The First Hundred Years
Founders Day is first celebrated, becomes an annual event each spring
BOV establishes the Academy of Teaching Excellence and inaugurates Alumni Distinguished Professorships
BOV approves recognized sorority-fraternity system
1973
- Corps of Cadets admits first female cadets
1975
- William E. Lavery Tech's twelfth president (1975-87)
1976
- Bachelor's degrees first top 3,000
Office of the Provost is established
Athletic scholarships are first offered to women
1977
- Master's degrees first top 1,000
1978
- Enrollment first tops 20,000
1980
- Classes begin at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine
1983
- Blacksburg bus system begins operation, reflecting the much larger numbers of students living off-campus
First student member (non-voting) of the board of visitors
First on-campus fraternity-sorority houses completed
1986
- Cranwell International Center opens
1988
- James D. McComas is Tech's thirteenth president (1988-94)
1990
- Doctoral degrees first top 400
1991-92
- Bachelor's degrees first top 4,000
1994
- Paul E. Torgersen is Tech's fourteenth president (1994-Present)
1996
- Mark Embree, Tech's second Rhodes Scholar
1997-98
- Virginia Tech, land-grant university and research institution, celebrates its 125th anniversary
VT History | Digital Library and Archives | Special Collections | University Archives
Send questions or comments to:
Tamara Kennelly, University Archivist
University Libraries
Virginia Tech
P.O. Box 90001
Blacksburg, VA, 24062-9001URL: http://spec.lib.vt.edu/archives/125th/timeline.htm
Last Modified on: Monday, 25-Jul-2011 17:32:37 EDT
