DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put down on the marker for the Texas Tech University Dairy Barn, out in Lubbock County. Now, when Texas Tech was just finding its footing, somebody looked out across that South Plains wind and said — we need cows. Not just any cows, mind you, but cows with purpose.
Cows with a curriculum. And so, in 1927, the dairy barn was completed, built to house the animals serving the Animal Husbandry Department, and it was something to see. The firm that drew it up — Sanguinet, Staats and Hedrick out of their architectural and engineering practice — handed the design work to their principal architect, a man named Wyatt Hedrick.
Now here's where Hedrick did something quietly bold. The rest of that central campus was dressed up in Spanish Renaissance Revival, all grandeur and Old World flourish. Hedrick looked at that, looked at what this building was going to be, and went a completely different direction.
He designed an Arts and Crafts bungalow barn. A style that said: this is a working place, and it ought to look like one. Two agricultural instructors were in the room when the planning got serious — Dr.
A.H. Leidigh and W.L. Stangel — and they made sure of one thing.
The barn, they said, should appeal to the sensibilities of farmers. Not administrators. Not architects.
Farmers. That direction mattered. The contract to actually build the dairy barn complex was awarded in July of 1925 to the El Paso firm of Ramey Bros.
They followed standard dairy farming configuration closely — hollow-tile walls plastered with gray stucco, wood windows, wood doors, and exposed rafter ends that gave the whole thing an honest, unadorned character. Standing nearby, the free-standing silo went up from cast concrete, topped with a conical roof. Practical.
Sturdy. Built to last. And the plans for that two-wing barn were thorough.
A milk house, a sun room, a milking and feeding room, calf stalls, a boiler room, a feed mixing room, and an office. Everything a working dairy operation needed, tucked under one roof on a college campus. By 1930 — just three years into serious operation — that dairy was producing enough milk, butter, and ice cream to supply the college cafeteria and sell to private customers on top of it.
Students who kept their cows at the dairy could actually reduce their tuition through the sale of those dairy products. Think about that. You could work your way through school one milk pail at a time.
Of course, 1930 had a sting in it too. On January 29th of that year, fire damaged the barn. But they repaired it, kept it going, and the operation ran all the way until 1966, when the Dairy Manufacturing Department finally vacated the building.
After that, the milk house and sun room wings were demolished — cleared away to make room for the Foreign Language Building. The main barn survived. Stood its ground.
And in 2015, the Texas Historical Commission recognized it as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark — a bungalow barn that never did match the rest of campus, and never needed to. It was built for farmers, after all. And farmers don't need fancy.
They need things that work.
What the marker says
The dairy barn at Texas Tech University was completed in 1927 and was built to house the cows used by the Animal Husbandry Department. The barn and adjacent silo were designed by the architectural and engineering firm of Sanguinet, Staats & Hedrick. Principal architect Wyatt Hedrick designed an Arts and Crafts bungalow barn, a style that differed from the central campus Spanish Renaissance Revival architecture. Two agricultural instructors, Dr. A.H. Leidigh and W.L. Stangel, were instrumental in the planning stages, suggesting that the barn should appeal to the sensibilities of farmers. The El Paso firm of Ramey Bros. was awarded the contract in July 1925 to build the dairy barn complex. The barn closely followed standard dairy farming configuration and was constructed with hollow-tile walls plastered with gray stucco, wood windows, doors and exposed rafter ends. The free-standing silo was constructed from cast concrete and features a conical roof. The plans for the two-wing barn included a milk house, sun room, milking and feeding room, calf stalls, boiler room, feed mixing room and an office. By 1930, the dairy produced enough milk, butter and ice cream for the college cafeteria and private customers. Students who kept their cows at the dairy reduced their tuition through the sale of the dairy’s products. The barn was damaged in a fire on January 29, 1930, but was repaired and remained in use until 1966 when the Dairy Manufacturing Department vacated the building. Soon after, the milk house and sun room wings were demolished to make way for the Foreign Language Building. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2015