Allen Centennial Cardens

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The Allen Centennial Gardens is a free public garden on the grounds of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The grounds feature the Agricultural Dean's House, the home of the first four deans of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

The Queen Anne house overlooking the garden was designed for William Arnon Henry, the first dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agriculture. When he came to the university, he purchased a small frame farm house on campus in a section where the university farm workman lived. By the 1890s, other universities were attempting to lure Henry away from Wisconsin. To placate him, the university offered Henry a salary increase, vacation time, an $8,000 appropriation for a house. Another $2,000 was later invested in the house, and when completed in 1896, Henry assumed all further expenses. It was designed by Allan D. Conover and Lew F. Porter.