Forestry officials from Texas A&M Forest Service have scheduled demolition for buildings and facilities remaining at the agency’s vacated Lufkin location on S First Street.
Demolition is scheduled beginning the week of January 4, 2021 and is expected to be completed within two months after the start date.
The property is currently for sale, and the demolition will reduce the burden for future owners of renovating the buildings and will make room for new construction.
“The facility has served the people and programs of Texas A&M Forest Service for a long time,” said Jacob Donellan, East Texas Operations Department Head of Texas A&M Forest Service. “But due to the age of the buildings and ever increasing maintenance issues, the facility is no longer meeting the needs of the agency.”
The property was dedicated and named the Cudlipp Forestry Center in June 1962 in honor of Albert E. Cudlipp, of Lufkin, by the Board of Directors of the Texas A&M College System, of which Cudlipp was a member from 1949 to 1961.
The compound of office buildings, training facilities and warehouses dates back to1935 housing the agency’s early wildfire prevention and protection programs, forest products research, forest pest control and field operations.
“If College Station was the head of the agency, then Cudlipp was the heart,” said Bill Oates, Associate Director of Texas A&M Forest Service. “For nearly 70 years, it was where things got done in the Texas A&M Forest Service. Without the work we did at Cudlipp, it’s doubtful Texas would have the forest resources we enjoy today.”
Though the Cudlipp Forestry Center is no longer used by the agency, all programs remain in the Lufkin area, relocated to the Hudson district office location on Highway 94.
Learn more about the forestry center and the agency’s early history at https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/history/featured_articles.aspx or browse historical documents about the center at https://it-lf-ecmweb.tamu.edu/tamus-tfs/Browse.aspx?cr=1 by typing Cudlipp in the search bar.
