This article examines how the history of land-grant universities in America shaped the views of higher educators, public officials, and foundations on the role of urban universities in addressing the problems of American cities. Higher education leaders urged the federal government to provide funds that would enable urban universities to do for cities what they believed land-grant universities had done for agriculture and rural areas. The urban land-grant analogy shaped the Urban Observatories program, the movement for urban-grant universities, the establishment of the HUD Office of University Partnerships, and in a different way, the proposed Urban Universities Renaissance bill.