J. Walter Wilson Laboratory

The J. Walter Wilson Laboratory was dedicated on October 5, 1962, when the cornerstone bearing the expired date 1961 was laid under rainy skies. The rest of the festivities were brighter. Praising the growth of the Biology Department under Professor Wilson, Samuel M. Nabrit ’28, president of Texas Southern University and one of Wilson’s former students, borrowed from Emerson and pronounced the building “the lengthened shadow of one man.” In fact, in order to honor Wilson, the Corporation had had to rescind a long-standing rule forbidding the naming of a building for a living member of the faculty and, after this special occasion, had reinstated the rule. A new biological laboratory building had been badly needed for some time. The new building freed up space in the overcrowded Arnold Laboratory while it added another 40,000 square feet for research and instruction in its four main floors plus its attic and basement. The department happily moved in to the main floors, occupying them (beginning at the first and going up) with the disciplines of animal physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, and plant physiology. Robinson, Green & Beretta designed the laboratory, which was built by Dimeo Construction Company. The building was enlarged in 1983, when the two million dollar Sol Koffler wing, named for its donor, the founder of the American Luggage Works, added 10,000 square feet of space.