Over the years the building hosted important investigations into soil erosion, improvements on the first forage harvester, and Aldo Leopold's new Department of Wildlife Management, among other milestones.

Peabody was a native son of Wisconsin, born in Eau Claire, who would go on over the next thirty years to design many of the UW's structures including the Stock Pavilion, the Field House at Camp Randall, and Memorial Union.

The style is Georgian Revival, with brick walls with quoins on the corners, first floor windows decorated with keystones, and a modillioned cornice.

Floyd Waldo Duffee, the second head of the department, explored rural electrification with his Ripon Experimental Electrical Line, which reached six farms.

of Ag Engineering also developed ventilated storage buildings, large capacity trench silos, and in 1943 started the first farm safety program in the US.