Until 1985, Campus Drive stopped at Panama Street, and the area where the greenhouse currently resides was vineyard space for the Stanford family, converted from open green lands in the 1870's. Professor George Beetle turned some of the vineyard space to corn genetics research in 1932. Since then, various researchers from the Biology Department have converted and expanded the space.
When Professor Walbot arrived to 184 Stock Farm Road in 1981, there were many large concrete fish tanks installed by the Biology department for salmon breeding, in addition to three glass greenhouse facilities and the fields. Many of the current facilities were installed afterwards in 1988. Most notably, Professor Walbot has seen rapid urbanization, with more pavement and roads and fewer animals and green spaces. There used to be three different species of foxes, Professor Walbot notes, "kind of a metaphor for the spread of urban America into the rural sector."
Professor Walbot used to observe the elements of wildlife that existed before rapid urbanization of the space.
Professor Walbot has been continuing her research on the greenhouse space throughout the years.
Interviewer: Okay. So today we have Professor Walbot who will be talking about the Greenhouse here in Stanford campus, and I’ll be asking you a couple of questions about this Greenhouse. How long have you worked at this Greenhouse for?
Prof. Walbot: Well, the facilities that we’re in were built in 1988, but I started working out here in 1981 when I was appointed as a professor at Stanford. We just didn’t have all the nice Greenhouses we have now.
Interviewer: Okay. How did this place look before?
Prof. Walbot: Actually, this land was part of the Stanford family vineyard and, of course, that had to be closed during prohibition. And during that period, a young assistant professor started named George Beadle, who’s a corn geneticist. So he had them convert a portion of the vineyard into a cornfield for his research and the fields surrounding the greenhouse are actually the Beadle fields that were set up in 1932. He was here for about 20 years and then various other faculty used the facility because it belongs to the biology department. When I arrived in 1981, there were quite a few fish tanks, large concrete fish tanks that had been used by the ichthyologists in the department for different trout and salmon breeding programs, and just three small glass greenhouses, plus the fields.
Interviewer: So, I guess, along those lines, how has it changed from before?
Prof. Walbot: Well, until 1985, Campus Drive stopped at Panama Street and there were no roads on this side of campus. So you literally had to hike to these fields. And we were continuous with the Carnegie Institution fields in Greenhouse space, which are now on the opposite side of Campus Drive. So this was a very kind of rural part of the Stanford campus, although still very close to the center. And now I would say it’s highly urbanized. There’s nearby soccer fields, we’re surrounded by parking lots and roads. So to me, it’s changed radically from a place where we routinely saw hawks and eagles and there was running water in part of a stream that used to be here, to now it’s like a small patch of cornfield and Greenhouse growing space for plants and not very many animals anymore. We used to have three different species of foxes out here and they would come through and we’d see them every morning hanging out by the cornfield . So, to me, it’s changed radically. It’s kind of a metaphor for the urbanization or the spread of Urban America into the rural sector and taking over farmland to turn it into homes and other facilities.
Interviewer: What are some of the things you used to do here?
Prof. Walbot: Well, actually what I do hasn’t changed at all. So I would say, as I just said in the previous comment, the main difference, although I still find it very peaceful out here, it feels removed from the certain hustle and bustle and campus, it used to be physically isolated for most people. So we didn’t have cars going by or people on bikes and the like. But actually what I do when I’m out here, grow plants in the greenhouse or in the summer in the fields, is exactly the same. In fact, it’s exactly the same as the early use of this land. It was, like I said, part of the Stanford family vineyard, so it was converted to agricultural land in the 1870s from just open grassland.
Interviewer: Okay. Thank you very much for answering my questions.
Prof. Walbot: Wow. That was fun.