In 1868, the year that James McCosh arrived in Princeton, the College of New Jersey was trying to complete its first new academic facility in almost 70 years. Initiated during the administration of John Maclean, Halsted Observatory was still under construction when McCosh took office and was the first of more than a dozen buildings he would dedicate as president.

Other than the new observatory, the College's academic facilities were sparse. The College library, then located in the south wing of Nassau Hall, was open only on a limited schedule and the collection itself was small and antiquated. Most classes were held in the cramped old recitation rooms of Nassau Hall, Geological Hall, and Philosophical Hall. Other classes met in professors' homes.

McCosh's first order of business was to construct a new classroom building. Dickinson Hall, constructed in 1869, and opened the following year, filled this pressing need. Designed by George B. Post of New York, Dickinson was notable in two respects: it foreshadowed the move toward the High Victorian Gothic style as the dominant architectural style on the campus, and it was the first major gift of John C. Green, the philanthropist who underwrote so many of McCosh's building projects.