Before the white settlement of the region, the area that is now East Lansing was a combination of dense virgin oak forest and tamarack swampland. In July 1855 a 677-acre site just north of the Red Cedar River was recommended to the State Board of Education, the report to the board noted that except for the occasional clearing the land was dense hardwood forest. It was in one of these "oak openings" that the school built its first three buildings in 1856: a multipurpose building called College Hall, a dormitory building later known as "Saints' Rest," and a barn.