Building Names at MLBS

Buildings

Ruth Patrick Hall

Jefferson Dining Hall

Wilbur Laboratory

Murray Hall

Why Lewis Hall was renamed

Cottages

In the 1930s Ivey Lewis, Director of Mountain Lake Biological Station, set out to name Station cottages after researchers who had made significant contributions to biology in the southern United States. With a $1,800 budget and an assistant, Charles Young, he solicited suggestions and compiled a list of scientists who contributed “various and noteworthy” additions to biology. He dedicated at least one cottage to each southern state, and sought to honor scientists that may never have had formal recognition. Lewis and Young posted advertisements in newspapers throughout the South asking for nominations of each state's great and early biologists. They received many letters from friends and colleagues of scientists in response. Although names were added to the original list made by Lewis and Young, the majority of MLBS cottages are named after these “pioneers in Southern biology.” More recent cottages and buildings have been named after individuals who lived at and contributed to Mountain Lake.