Owen Hall
The Owen Hall complex is perhaps best known as the home base for UMN Crookston's programs in Agricultural Systems Management, Agronomy, Horticulture, and Natural Resources. The main building features classrooms, labs, and faculty offices for these majors. Students also make use of the Student Success and Writing Center, as well as the Disability Resource Center located on the second floor addition.
Visiting students and their families begin their campus tours in the Office of Admissions in Suite A, located on the east side of the complex.
Location on Campus
Owen Hall's primary location is on the northeast side of the University of Minnesota Crookston campus, north of Bergland Laboratory and east of Sargeant Student Center and Hill Hall.
Owen Hall
2900 University Ave, Crookston MN 56716
Points of Interest
Building History
Owen Hall is the oldest building still standing on the UMN Crookston campus. It was built in 1908. Ag engineering laboratories originally occupied the first floor of the building. Classrooms and labs for business training, farm engineering, and carpentry were located on the second floor. Work rooms also provided space for the general mechanic and the bus driver.
Owen Hall is named after Sidney M. Owen, who was a member of the U of M Board of Regents in the early 1900s. Owen was a prominent man in agriculture at the time. Not only did he serve as editor of the agricultural journal Farm, Stock and Home, but he also was a populist candidate for governor of Minnesota in the 1890s.
In the late Sixties Owen Hall was renovated. The building was remodeled to house agriculture laboratories and classrooms for students and faculty in the Agronomy, Horticulture, Art, and Natural Resources departments.
The "Addition" was constructed in 1969. The Addition, connected to the north portion of the building, houses several of the mechanized agriculture offices, laboratories, and classrooms.
The area now called Suite A was originally constructed for the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), which established itself on campus in 1991. In 2015, AURI moved into new offices in the Valley Technology Park building. Suite A now serves as home to UMC's Office of Admissions.
In 1999 one of the bays in the Owen Addition was remodeled to create space for various student support offices such as Financial Aid and Scholarships, the Disability Resource Center and the Student Success Center. The Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and additional adjunct faculty offices also are located there.