By Michele
Ripley
UK's first president, James K.
Patterson, offered his own funds as collateral after costly delays exhausted funds to
complete what is now called the Administration Building.
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May 15, 2001 – (Lexington, Ky.) – The
119-year-old University of Kentucky Administration Building was originally called the Main
Building, as it provided space for all university functions, including chapel, armory,
academy, literary societies and geological survey. Dedication ceremonies for the structure took place on Feb. 15, 1882. The opening
was said to herald a “new beginning” at State College, as UK was then called.
But not before James K. Patterson, UK’s first president, offered his own funds as
collateral after costly delays exhausted building funds and caused banks, dubious about
the fate of the fledgling college, to deny loans for completion of the project.
The student body at that time numbered 318, the faculty 17.
Of the first four buildings erected at UK, only the
Administration Building remains.
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