This Fourth of July marked the 25th anniversary of the Farm House Museum.

An open house was held Sunday to commemorate the anniversary.

Lynette Pohlman, director of University Museums, said having a National Historic Landmark such as Farm House Museum “preserves our heritage and forecasts our future.”

Mary Atherly, former curator, said that two presidents and one dean lived in Farm House. C.F. Curtiss, past dean of agriculture, lived there with his family from 1897 to 1947.

The building was built in several stages in the 1860s. It was the center of social activity for the first 20 years of the college, Atherly said.

“It’s always been a house that’s welcomed people,” she said.

Atherly said in 1970, the 110-year-old building had numerous structural problems and there was a movement to bulldoze the building.

The following year President William Parks appointed a committee to save Farm House, which later opened as an educational museum on July 4, 1976.

Pohlman said today there are more than 54 classes that utilize the Farm House Museum for educational purposes, ranging from composition to photography.