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U of I’s
Oldest Building Saved
Urbana-Champaign
On March 11, 2009, at the University of Illinois Board
of Trustees meeting, Chancellor Richard Herman announced
that the historic Mumford House will remain in its
original site on the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign campus and will not be moved as
previously planned. Many trustees spoke in favor of
keeping the house in its location and none opposed.
Board of Trustees Chairman Niranjan S. Shah directed
Chancellor Herman to prepare rehabilitation plans. He
also said a resolution will be drafted to ensure this
policy will be permanent.
This decision is a clear victory for Landmarks Illinois,
the Preservation and Conservation Association of
Champaign County (PACA), and U of I students, faculty,
and alumni who fought hard to oppose moving the
university’s oldest structure. Landmarks Illinois
President and CEO, Jim Peters, was among the many who
attended and spoke at the board of trustees meeting.
UIUC had proposed moving the 139-year-old Mumford House
from its original site to a location two miles away,
adjacent to a busy highway and redevelopment site.
University officials had said the frame structure, which
is located on a slight knoll and surrounded by mature
trees, is in the way of a landscape plan for the
newly-constructed McFarland bell tower.
The house, which was named for an early Dean of the
College of Agriculture, was built by the college in 1870
as a “Model Farmhouse.” Listed on the National Register
of Historic Places, it dates to the U of I’s origins as
the Illinois Industrial University. After being used for
more than a century—first as the residence of
agriculture deans, then as faculty offices—it was
vacated in 1998. Although the university has provided
only minimal maintenance since then, a recent inspection
confirms that the building is structurally sound despite
its peeling paint and decayed front steps.
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