2017 Summer Walking Tour Schedule

2017 Summer Walking Tours

Old East Campus - MSU Tour Series

Saturday, August 19 - 10:00 a.m.

Tour meets at the Student Services Building, 556 E. Circle Dr.

            The 2017 MSU campus tour will cover the history of MSU’s old east campus, which is closely intertwined with the explosive growth of the campus before and after World War II, when President John Hannah found the resources to convert a small cow college into a major university. Highlights of the tour will include Berkey, the Student Services Building, the East Campus residence halls, the Natural Sciences Building, Giltner, and the Auditorium.

Beal Botanical Garden - A Historical Perspective

Thursday, August 24 - 6:30 p.m.

Tour meets at the W.J. Beal Botanical Garden, 40 W. Circle Dr.

            MSU’s Beal Garden owes its existence and its name to Prof. William James Beal, who decided not long after arriving at Michigan State Agricultural College in 1871 that the school needed a campus botanic garden. Within a year this able and ambitious man established a nursery featuring plants from around the world, including England’s Kew Garden. Over the next several years he worked across the campus cultivating trees, plants, and grasses in the area known as Sleepy Hollow and the arboretum. He worked tirelessly to grow these humble efforts throughout his career, and in 1924, following his death, the State Board of Agriculture named the botanic garden in his honor at the request of the Department of Botany. The tour will include stories of Beal’s work, as well as the efforts of his successors who reimagined and redesigned the garden in the mid-20th century, inspiring the American Society of Horticultural Science in 1955 to pronounce the newly organized garden the finest teaching facility in the country.