About the University of Idaho
A Brief History of the University of Idaho
  by Carlos Schwantes


The location of the University of Idaho in Moscow resulted from the most important Presidential signature that never was (at least from an Idahoan's perspective) and is validated by no less an authority than the state's own constitution. And therein lies a tale typical of the Gem State's fascinating history. The first serious move to establish an Idaho university dated from 1887 when the territorial legislature passed a bill proposing a college at Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls), but Gov. Edward A. Stevenson vetoed it. He supported the idea of a public university but believed that the bill suffered from serious omissions.

At about the same time, both houses of Congress approved a measure severing the Panhandle from the rest of Idaho and reattaching it to Washington. Citizens of Lewiston, nursing a grudge that dated from their loss of the territorial capital to Boise in 1865, greeted news of their impending return to Washington with brass bands and a community celebration. But they cut their revelry short four days later when they learned that President Grover Cleveland had pocket vetoed the bill because of protests by Gov. Stevenson. The most important presidential signature that never was so angered residents of the north that when the 1889 territorial legislature met, it responded by creating a public university and placing it in the Panhandle town of Moscow, a gesture specifically referred to as an "olive branch" of peace.

John Warren Brigham and Willis Sweet wrote the act creating a university at Moscow. After Brigham introduced the measure known as Council Bill 20, it easily passed the Territorial Legislature, and Gov. Stevenson signed it into law on Jan. 30, 1889. Commonly known as the university's charter, the act became part of the state constitution when Idaho was admitted to the Union in 1890.

Willis Sweet and Henry Blake, the first president and secretary of the Board of Regents, received authorization to purchase land for the new university, but they had in hand only $15,000 to acquire the property, improve it, and develop plans for a building. After considering several offers, they purchased a 20-acre tract of hilly land from James Deakin, one of early Moscow's largest landowners, for $4,000. In the fall of 1889, workers excavated a building site, but not until the summer of 1891 did the fledgling state provide them the funds necessary to begin actual construction. However, financial difficulties continued to plague the university, and it had to finish the building in piecemeal fashion. The entire Administration Building was not completed until 1899, 10 years after ground clearing began.

On Oct. 3, 1892, the University of Idaho opened its doors. On that day, President Franklin B. Gault welcomed about 40 students and one professor, John Edwin Ostrander. Since most of the students who entered in 1892 were at the preparatory level, the first graduating class in 1896 numbered only four (two men and two women).

The Administration Building fire of 1906 proved to be a turning point in the university's history. To many it appeared that the struggling school would slide toward retrenchment: it would cease growing and might even lose its long struggle for survival. But just the opposite happened. President James Alexander MacLean turned to the Boise architect John Tourtellotte, who had designed the state's Roman Revival capitol and many other public and private buildings. Tourtellotte's Tudor Gothic structure rose from the ashes of the old Administration Building to form what remains the centerpiece of the campus. Modeled on England's venerable Hampton Court Palace, it seems to symbolize the University of Idaho's growth and maturity as a major institution of higher education.

And so does too the campus. Where in nature's scheme there should be a field of bunchgrass typical of the original Palouse prairie, there is instead a tree-shaded common. The look of small-town New England exists here in Idaho because in 1908 the nation's premier landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers of Massachusetts, designed a master plan for Idaho's university, creating a new campus to complement the new Administration Building. This firm, whose founding father, Frederick Law Olmsted, had earlier designed New York's Central Park, had as its apparent goal to give a campus less than two decades beyond the raw frontier the instant cache that comes from identification with New England's time-honored landscapes and their ability to symbolize historical standing and refinement.

Today, the University of Idaho emphasizes its commitment to higher education by providing a variety of programs from a vast array of disciplines to more than 11,000 students from all states and 78 foreign countries. Strong undergraduate programs are coupled with internationally recognized research and scholarly achievements. Since its founding, the University of Idaho has granted approximately 80,000 degrees.

Carlos Schwantes is a former UI professor of history. He has written numerous books about the history of Idaho, the Pacific Northwest and railroads, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his work.