a remnant stand of forest remains on the VT campus east of Lane Stadium
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
a remnant stand of forest remains on the VT campus east of Lane Stadium
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College opened on October 1, 1872. The first student walked 26 miles to attend classes.
The school was renamed Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute in 1896. For years it was called VPI for Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and that became the official name in 1944.
In 1943, Radford College was merged with VPI. The two schools were separated in 1964. The General Assembly designated VPI as a university in 1970 and gave it the current name of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.1
What is now Virginia Tech, with 38,000 students, started as a land grant college with Federal funding through the 1862 Morrill Act. Virginia, like other states, was given the revenue from the sale of 30,000 acres of public land to support a college that would teach agriculture and mechanic arts.2