Agricultural Engineering was constructed to meet the growing demand for mechanized agriculture courses following the turn of the century. A program of Farm Mechanics was originally spearheaded by Oscar Van Pelt Stout, an engineering professor. Stout began teaching courses in mechanized agriculture around 1900, and in 1904 the Department of Farm Mechanics was created within the old Industrial College. By 1909, the Department has been renamed Agricultural Engineering and moved into the College of Agriculture. In 1915 enrollments had increased dramatically and the Board of Regents elected to construct a new building using funds from the Special Building Fund of 1914.
Agricultural Engineering was designed by Coolidge and Hodgdon to complement the other new buildings that were part of their grand vision for the University. Like other buildings on the Mall, it was constructed of buff brick, with limestone trim. The main form of the building is rectangular, two stories, and classical in detail. The wide, slightly elevated entry is graced with four large ionic columns. Construction began is 1916 and the building was occupied in 1918.
On each campus, Coolidge and Hodgdon selected one building site on which to place a large and monumental structure to serve as an anchor and focal point for each campus' design scheme. On the city campus, they selected a site on R street where they built Social Sciences Hall (CBA). On the farm campus, their site was an obvious choice: the head of the East Campus Mall. This became the site on which Agricultural Engineering was constructed.
In 1982 Agricultural Engineering was renamed to honor former department head, L. W. Chase. Chase worked closely with the architects in the design Agricultural Engineering.
Source Information:
Archives and Special Collections, UNL Libraries
