The Incomparable Dairy Barn

A look at the long history of a staple on the Texas Tech campus for National Dairy Month

By Texas Tech University

June 13^th, 2022

Built in the 1920s, the Dairy Barn is one of the original buildings on the campus of what was then known as Texas Technological College. In its early days, the barn was a functional facility, with students allowed to bring as many as three of their own cows with them to campus, so they could pay their tuition with milk sales. By 1931, the dairy manufacturing department was providing milk and ice cream to campus cafeterias, with the excess sold to the Lubbock community.

In the mid-1960s, the dairy manufacturing department vacated the building, leaving the Dairy Barn to fall into disrepair. By 1976, discussions were being had about the restoration of the Dairy Barn and its potential uses. In 1984, the Dairy Barn was deemed unsafe and structurally unsound by the Coordinating Board for the Texas College and University System. The Texas Tech student senate took action to preserve the Dairy Barn in 1989, creating a “Save the Barn” campaign. It raised $64,000 to weatherize the building and fought to have it placed on the National Register of Historic Places, which was achieved in 1992. A 2012 project gave the Dairy Barn a facelift, with new paint and shingles put on to help preserve the historic building.

In 2017, the Office of the President agreed to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1.3 million to make the Dairy Barn a working building again. Ground broke on the renovations in 2019 and the facility was finished in 2020. Today, the historic Dairy Barn stands as a symbol of Texas Tech’s agricultural heritage and is an integral part of the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources.