On October 27, 1868, Corvallis College was granted a charter by Oregon's legislative assembly designating it as the state's land grant institution under the federal 1862 Morrill Act, a status secured in part by faculty member and Oregon Senate secretary William Moreland. Known as Corvallis College and the Agricultural College of Oregon, it operated as a joint private-public institution until 1885. In 1871, the board of trustees purchased a 34.85-acre farm just west of Corvallis for $4500 with funds raised by 100 local citizens, creating the Experimental Farm, now Lower Campus. In 1885, Benton County citizens formed a State Agricultural College Association to raise money for a new college building, and by August 17, 1887, the cornerstone was laid on College Hill. The building was completed in 1888, and in 1889 the college moved from downtown Corvallis to its new three-story brick home west of downtown, while additional agricultural lands were also acquired. Between 1889 and 1900, the college added several buildings and began its first landscaping under horticulture faculty member George Coote, who from 1890 until his death in 1908 directed the planting of many trees around the Administration Building, now Benton Hall, and established elm-lined paths through the former Experimental Farm, many of whose trees still stand. New buildings included Alpha Hall, Mechanical Hall, the Station Building, Cauthorn Hall, the Horticulture Building, and the armory and gymnasium; after Mechanical Hall burned in 1898, construction of a replacement began the following year. Agriculture Hall was completed in 1902, and Waldo Hall in 1907. Between 1907 and 1909, William Jasper Kerr became president, architect John Bennes was chosen to design the Mechanic Arts building and went on to produce nearly 50 designs for the institution between 1907 and 1942, and Kerr invited John Olmsted of the Olmsted Brothers to guide the campus's future development. Olmsted visited in June 1909 and submitted a 60-page report dated October 1 whose recommendations, especially for architectural harmony, were widely adopted and guided development for the next fifteen years. In 1924 Kerr turned to planner A.D. Taylor's associates, leading to Taylor's visit in December 1925 and plans submitted in 1926 and again in 1945 after World War II. Taylor's plans called for expansion to the west and south and for regularly spaced street trees, and for the next 60 years campus growth generally followed the basic layout and circulation of his 1945 plan. Since 1945, this framework has continued to shape the university's physical development, and the OSU National Historic District's listing in the National Register of Historic Places affirms its significance to the university community, Corvallis, Oregon, and the nation.