JIM NANCE McCORD ENGINEERING BUILDING
The JIM NANCE McCORD ENGINEERING BUILDING located on 35th Avenue, across from the BROWN-DANIEL LIBRARY was erected 1948 at a cost of $1,000,000. The building was dedicated November 23, 1949 and proclaimed the JIM NANCE McCORD HALL May 30, 1958. It contained at the time laboratories, equipment for instruction and research in mechanics, combustion, electronics, hydraulics, and the machine shop. Other accommodations included classrooms and offices. The office of the Dean of School of Engineering and Technology and the main offices of the departments of Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering were also located in the building. In 1983 the engineering departments moved to the new engineering building, the ANDREW TORRENCE ENGINEERING BUILDING and the JIM NANCE McCORD ENGINEERING BUILDING was renovated to house Biological Sciences.
Jim N. McCord was born in Unionville, Bedford County, Tennessee. He served as Mayor of Lewisburg, Tennessee for 25 years and elected without opposition to the 78th Congress of the United States from the Fifth Congressional District in 1942. Mr. McCord was elected Governor of Tennessee on November 7, 1944 and reelected Governor of Tennessee on November 5, 1946. During his tenure as Governor, Jim McCord expressed a desire to establish "regional universities" in the South. He saw in the development of Tennessee State College nothing out of line with the right of Tennessee Negroes to secure the same education already made available for white students at UT-Knoxville. He helped to make available an appropriation of $1,000,000 for an engineering building in 1947. At the time of the dedication, Jim Nance Mccord had become Commissioner of Conservation.