Florida Agricultural Extension Service (FAES) was founded in 1887 at Florida Agricultural College in Lake City, the state’s original land-grant institution. When UF officially began operations in fall 1906, FAES was relocated to Gainesville. The first FAES director in Gainesville was Peter Rolfs, and the first UF president, Andrew Sledd, was a former FAES director; the campus academic building Rolfs Hall and dormitory Sledd Hall are named for the two. For much of the 20th century, FAES was headquartered in Newell Hall on the UF main campus, named for former FAES director Wilmon Newell (1921-1943).
The first off-campus FAES facility was the Citrus REC in Lake Alfred, established in 1917 to aid the state’s citrus growers. It was followed by the Everglades REC in Belle Glade, North Florida REC in Quincy, and the Tropical REC in Homestead, all of which were established in the 1920s. Additional facilities were opened in the decades that followed, increasing the FAES statewide presence.
UF/IFAS Office of the Dean for Research
Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
1022 McCarty Hall D, P.O. Box 110200
Gainesville, FL 32611-0200
352-392-1784
Florida Station, Pineapple shelter and Fertilizer Experiments with Pineapple, 1900
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
