When I was looking through William Ward Watkin’s papers this week, this picture caught my eye. Such a friendly little building, nestled under the shade of a big oak in a grassy clearing. But why take a picture of it and stick it in with photos of campus construction? Well, it turns out that it was the first in a long and noble, if sometimes rickety, line of campus construction sheds. It was built in 1910 by William Miller and Sons, low bidder on the contract for the construction of the Institute’s first buildings.

Here’s the most recent iteration, which I think is about to disappear as the current spurt of new construction winds down for the time being.

I don’t think they had these in 1910, but I don’t know that for sure.