private engineering college west of the Alleghenies.
During the early years of the school, finance was a major concern. Many faculty and staff accepted pay cuts to stay at the institution.
In 1889 the school awarded what it considered to be the first chemical engineering degree in the country. In 1897 John B. Peddle was appointed professor of machine design, a post he held until 1933. In 1910 he published the Construction of Graphical Charts, which was the first book in the English language treating the art of graphical representation.
=== Relocation and war years (1917–1951) ===
In 1917, the school, having grown to more than 300 students, moved from 13th and Locust Street to a new site consisting of 123 acres (0.50 km2) of farmland east of town, donated by the Hulman family of Terre Haute. The old location was used continuously by the Vigo County School District from 1922 to 2013; as of 2020 the Terre Haute Boys & Girls Club occupies the site. The cornerstone of the new campus was laid in 1922. The new campus …
