[1] The institute fell into financial trouble in its later years and in 1872, in conjunction with strong lobbying by local residents and its principal, Thomas Nelson Conrad, the academy was selected to be reorganized as the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Virginia Tech), the state's primary land grant institution under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act.
[2] The Preston and Olin building was originally constructed 1855 as a three-story, 100 x 40-ft. red brick edifice located on a hill facing Main Street in Blacksburg.
During the Civil War, Major General George Crook occupied the building as his headquarters when his federal troops passed through Blacksburg following the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain.
1 (now known as Lane Hall), the Preston and Olin building was remodeled and converted into the Machine Shop, and two additions, the last completed in 1904, were made forming a quadrangle.
[3] The area where the Preston and Olin building once stood on the Virginia Tech campus is now the site of the Moss Arts Center.