Farm House - Urbana, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 40° 06.161 W 088° 13.658
16T E 395365 N 4439877
Constructed in 1870, this is the oldest structure on the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Also known as the Mumford House.
Waymark Code: WM985G
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/12/2010
Views: 3
More from Landmarks Illinois:
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"It was designed as a “model farmhouse” for the school’s experimental farm, reportedly based on a pattern book design by landscape architect A.J. Downing. The house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, sits on a slight knoll, surrounded by mature trees. Its proximity to the NHL-listed Morrow Plots reinforces the site’s important agricultural history. The farmhouse was named for former Dean of Agriculture Herbert W. Mumford, a longtime resident. The university has proposed moving the building two miles to the southeast, where it would house a welcome center. Critics charge that this would remove an important feature of the campus, while jeopardizing the farmhouse’s historic listing."
Excerpt from "Old Illinois Houses" by John Drury reprinted by
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London, 1977
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"Both faculty and students regard it as something of a shrine and identify it as the "Mumford House." This name was given it because of the long residence here of the late Herbert W. Mumford, dean of the university's college of agriculture and nationally known farm marketing expert whose program for livestock market quotations has been adopted throughout the Midwest. Dean Mumford and his family occupied this dwelling for more than thirty years."
Read more on preservation efforts from the National Trust:
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The house is in run down condition and its location is not in keeping with current use of the land as a growing university campus. As a result, a battle rages as to whether to or how to preserve it, including the possibility of moving the house off campus.