Fernow Hall, Academic building at Cornell University, New York, US
Fernow Hall is a university building on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York, built in the Colonial Revival style with stone facades and large windows. Inside, it holds laboratories, classrooms, and research spaces spread across several floors, all dedicated to the natural sciences.
The building was put up in 1915 as part of a New York State effort to grow forestry education at Cornell University. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, recognizing its role in the history of American forestry.
The building is named after Bernhard Eduard Fernow, a German-born forester who shaped the early years of forestry in the United States. Today the Department of Natural Resources uses it for teaching and research, keeping its original focus on the natural world alive.
The building sits along Mann Drive on the Cornell University campus and is easy to reach on foot from most other parts of the grounds. Since it is an active teaching and research facility, public access may be limited, so it is worth checking in advance before visiting.
Bernhard Fernow, the man the building honors, ran the first state college of forestry in the US at Cornell, but it was shut down in 1903 after a public controversy over a research project that cleared a large area of trees. The building itself went up more than a decade after that closure, when forestry education was restarted at the university.
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