Why do we say he lives on campus but not he lives in campus? Technically we live in the boundaries of the campus.
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1Noah, maybe you should add your example as an answer to this question...– J.R.Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 10:31
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You live on a piece of land which includes several buildings. The same preposition, on, is used with the word farm as well, and the logic behind it is the same.
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@Noah: To my (extremely) limited experience, apart from the house where the farmer usually lives, there are also barns for the animals.– IreneCommented Jun 14, 2012 at 10:48
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3I wouldn't try to find logic in it: if you try to apply logic to linguistic questions you often get the wrong answer. The actual answer is "because that's what we do". Americans tend to live on a street; the British used to live in a street, though nowadays they sometimes live on one. Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 16:22
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"Does a farm have multiple buildings?" Yes, of course. What an odd question - have you ever seen a farm with strictly one stucture??– FattieCommented Aug 29, 2014 at 12:50