Our History
In 2000, as part of the Research and Education Center’s anniversary celebration, Dr. Randy Weckman, UK associate professor and Agricultural Communications team member, compiled a detailed historical account of the Center, which was officially dedicated at a grand Labor Day celebration in 1925 as the West Kentucky Sub-Experiment Station.
This update to that rich 75-year history, created in celebration of the Center’s 2025 centennial, examines another quarter-century of agricultural progress, research advancement, and dedicated service by the Center’s faculty and staff.
West Kentucky is progressive and it will attain great heights with this new station here. [This] farm has in it the soul of these people.
Dean Thomas Poe Cooper 1925 dedication of the West Kentucky Sub-Experiment Station
Between 8,000 and 12,000 people attended the Station dedication on September 7, 1925.
As a land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture conducts research and education throughout the Commonwealth. The Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the College, maintains permanent facilities at several locations outside of Lexington. The largest such facility is located at Princeton. “Princeton,” as it is usually referred to, was originally titled the West Kentucky Sub-experiment Station, a branch of the Experiment Station. After the new building was constructed in the ‘80s, the term “Center” began to replace the Substation designation. “Princeton” is now known as the University of Kentucky Research and Education Center at Princeton.
