Joseph C. Brown
Joseph C. Brown
Dedication of Brown Field, Oct. 17, 1927
Brown Field with Shoemaker Hall in the background, undated
Brown Hall, 1959
Brown Hall, 1960s
Biography
Joseph C. Brown was born April 5, 1879 in Piqua, OH. He received his undergraduate degree at Hanover College in Indiana in 1901 and attended graduate school at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where he earned a master's degree. He worked as a high school teacher and superintendent of schools in Indiana, as well as a stint in the mathematics department at the University of Illinois before coming to St. Cloud State in 1916. Brown resigned in May 1927 to become the third president of the Northern Illinois Teachers College (now University) in DeKalb, IL. Brown served as president there until 1929. He passed away on January 16, 1945, in Pelham, NY and is buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Piqua, OH.
Brown Hall (1960)
Originally called the Science and Math Building, construction began in September 1958 with $1.412 million appropriation from the Minnesota state legislature. The doors opened in 1960 on the three story building that occupied a half-block between 1st and 2nd Avenue South. A small greenhouse was attached to the building along with a bell shaped 250 person auditorium on the north side. The building became the home of the departments of Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Mathematics, as well as contained sections for botany and geology. Inside were 29 laboratories and classrooms, nine research rooms, and 29 offices. The building also included an aviation workshop and a ramp entrance for handicapped students. In August 1962, the Minnesota State College Board renamed the building the "J.C. Brown Science and Mathematics Building." The 2008 Minnesota state legislature appropriated $15 million to renovate Brown Hall to become the home of the Nursing program. The renovation was completed in 2010.
For more information, see the individual profile for Brown Hall on the University Archives’ website.
J.C. Brown Athletic Field (1927)
Standing west of Shoemaker Hall, Brown Field was opened and dedicated on October 14, 1927 during Homecoming. The field was no longer used sometime during the 1950s, at least when the Thomas J. Gray Campus Laboratory School (now the Engineering and Computing Center) opened in the fall of 1958.