Ontario Agricultural College

The Ontario School of Agriculture and Experimental Farm opened on May 1, 1874. A provincial government initiative, the new school was situated in Guelph on a 550-acre farm purchased from Frederick William Stone (1814-1895), the present site of the Guelph Campus of the University of Guelph. Moreton Lodge, the Stone residence, became the first school and administrative building. In 1880, the name of the school was changed to the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) and Experimental Farm. Affiliated with the University of Toronto until 1964, the OAC began offering bachelor’s degrees in 1887 and graduate degrees in 1926. Short courses on a variety or agricultural and rural topics began being offered to the general public in 1891.

A Provincial Act of 1962 created the Federated Colleges of the Ontario Department of Agriculture, comprising the Ontario Agricultural College, the Ontario Veterinary College (formed in Toronto in 1862, moved to Guelph in 1922), and the Macdonald Institute (established on the OAC campus in 1903). These three colleges formed the nucleus of the University of Guelph, founded in 1964.

The OAC continued to expand after 1964. A Landscape Architecture degree program was established in 1965, with Commerce and Environmental Science programs beginning in 1988. 400-acres featuring plant collections, gardens, walking trails, natural woodlands, wetlands, and meadows, known as The Arboretum, was established on the Guelph campus in 1970 to support teaching, research, and outreach at the University of Guelph. In 1997, the provincial government amalgamated agriculture education across the province, with agricultural colleges in Kemptville, Ridgetown and Alfred becoming affiliated with the OAC and the University of Guelph. The OAC now offers programs and conducts research on the Guelph and Ridgetown campuses.