The first of these buildings, 1879 Hall, was built in 1903-4. Unlike the other residential buildings of this period, it was constructed of brick instead of the stone. As Benjamin W. Morris Jr., the architect, wrote, 1879 Hall was "so far from Blair and Little and the Gym that advantage has been taken...to change the materials as so give it a more individual character."

President Wilson, a member of the class that donated the building, used the large room over the arch as his office. One of the signature spaces on campus, this room afforded a tremendous view down Prospect Avenue.

1879 Hall had one further distinction: it was located on the eastern side of the campus and was, as such, the only dormitory ever built east of Nassau Hall.