With the founding of NC State College in 1889 were created five academic divisions, one of which was the department of Horticulture, Arboriculture, and Botany. Around the same time, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture created a division of horticulture in the Agricultural Experiment Station. W. F. Massey was named to head both positions in 1889, and would serve State College until 1907. The department was housed in Primrose Hall after its construction in 1896, remaining there until 1905 when it relocated to Agricultural Hall (demolished 1956). Under Massey's leadership, students were trained in theory as well as the practice of horticulture, and he used his position in the Experiment Station to give his students the hands-on training they needed.

Following the general reorganization of the School of Agriculture in 1923, the horticultural extension work performed outside the department became fully integrated with the academic and research activities of the department. After that time the department moved once again, this time relocating to Polk Hall. The department also maintained a farm on college grounds, between Polk and Dan Allen Drive, south of Hillsborough Street to the railroad. The department used it to conduct research experiments as well as a demonstration farm for cultural practices.

From that time until the years following World War II, the department faculty would remain small in number, despite the variety and importance of academic, research, and extension work performed. Today, the Department of Horticultural Science occupies Kilgore Hall (constructed in 1952), employs over fifty faculty, and continues to play an important role in state-wide horticultural research and extension. The department assumed its current name in 1962.