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1794
Blount College
Blount College, a forerunner of UT, is created by the State legislature.
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1862
Morrill Land Grant College Act
The US Congress passes the Morrill Land Grant College Act which provides federal fund to establish public colleges and universities to teach agriculture and the mechanical arts to all.
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1869
East Tennessee University
East Tennessee University, a forerunner of UT, is designated as a land-grant college and the agricultural college is established.
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1887
Charles Dabney
Charles Dabney, a chemist, becomes president of UT. During his tenure, the curriculum is reorganized to include dairying
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1889
UT’s Dairy Club is Organized
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1900
UT’s Dairy Hall is Built
The cost of the hall is about $15,000 in the area where Morgan Hall now stands. Described as equal to many commercial companies, the facility is equipped with milk and cream vats, separators, sterilizers, pasteurizers, bottling machines, churns, and butter workers. The building has a refrigerator and cheese room and is heated throughout by steam and lighted by electricity. .
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1910
State’s First Creamery
The state’s first creamery, a cooperative, is organized in Winchester.
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1915
UT Cooperative Creamery
The UT Cooperative is established to train students and encourage an interest in dairying.
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1916
First-Class Butter
The Creamery “is producting first-class butter, for which there is a great demand greater, in fact, than can be supplied,” according to the UT Record, Volume 19, Issue 6. Business is so good the Creamery buys its first truck.
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1919
Morgan Hall Cornerstone Laid
The cornerstone is laid for Morgan Hall in November, the first major building for classrooms and laboratories on the agricultural campus. UT’s Cooperative Creamery and the Old Club House are torn down to make room for this building.
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1921
UT’s Dairy Department and Creamery in Morgan Hall
UT’s Dairy department, including the Creamery, are housed on the first floor of Morgan Hall. Manufactured Milk Products Journal reports, “Expansion of the dairy department …. has been equipped with a modern creamery at an approximate cost of $9,000.
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1923
UT Ice Cream
Professor Thomas B. Harrison joins the faculty as assistant professor of dairy manufacturing and creamery manager, an he starts making ice cream. “UT ice cream became a favorite of hundreds of students as well as many Knoxville citizens for many years,” Horace C. Smith writes in An Honored Calling: A history of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, published in 1999.
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1938
UT Creamery Technology
An ad in the Volunteer yearbook proclaims the UT Creamery as “the most up-to-date dairy manufacturing laboratory in the South.” Similar ads fun every year for nearly a decade.
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1949
McCord Hall
UT’s McCord Hall, named for Governor Jim McCord, a longtime friend of the dairy industry, and the Dairy Manufacturing Building (The Creamery) are built. Constructions costs $1,035,000.
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1972
Department of Food Science and Technology
UT’s Creamery becomes part of the newly formed Department of Food Science and Technology. For the next seventeen years, the Creamery produces milk and other dairy products for the campus, UT Medical Center, and the public.
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1989
UT Creamery Closes
UT Creamery closes due to economic constraints and changing consumer demands.
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1998
Building Renovation
The Dairy Manufacturing Building, which housed the Creamery, is renovated into the Food Safety and Processing Building.
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2013
All Vol Cheese
Conversations begin about bringing back portions of the UT Creamery to provide hands-on opportunities for students and to raise awareness of the then-named Department of Food Science and Technology and its mission. Until a new creamery facility can be built, UT partners with Sweetwater Valley Farm to produce All Vol Cheese.
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2021
Alumnae Cowgirls Creamery
Alumnae Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, creators of the renowned Cowgirls Creamery brand, agree to provide seed money to pay the two Creamery managers’ salaries for three to five years, until the operation can become self-sustaining.
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2023
UT Creamery Opens
UT Creamery opens in spring 2023 with production facilities in the Food Science Building on River Drive and the storefront ice cream shop and boutique in the UT Culinary Institute and Creamery building at 2712 Neyland Drive (previously the UT Visitors Center).
History
