Curtis House - Campus Building and Artifacts, & WVSU Archives & Special Collections

Curtis House is a historic house on Barren Drive located across the street from another landmark structure, East Hall. The Curtis House holds great significance to WVSU and its Land-Grant programs. The original resident of the home, Austin W. Curtis, Sr., was the first professor and chair of Agriculture, having begun his tenure in 1899 at West Virginia Colored Institute. Curtis taught scientific agricultural methods that would nurture the clay soil at Institute. When Byrd Prillerman became president of the institution, he and Curtis worked as a team to unite the 1890 land-grant schools as they advanced methods of farm production. The Curtis House provides office space for Gus R. Douglass Land-Grant Institute administrators, a museum/exhibition area to showcase WVSU's Land-Grant history, and a meeting/conference center.