Morrill Hall was dreamt up in 1870, only two years after Iowa State opened, when the need for a new building arose. Of course, with the typical political fashion, a library and museum building was approved 20 years later.

Built in 1890 and named after Sen. Justin Morrill, author of the land-grant legislation, Morrill Hall was constructed. It has quite the history of being a chapel, library, museum and gym, as well as home to bats, bees and one camel.

There was even a brief segment of time when the southeast corner of the basement was converted to a barbershop dating from 1905-1908, according to the Iowa State Library. It  changed only when the basement was renovated in to a file and office room – the beginning of the administrative use of Morrill Hall.

Bats were a constant bother. Often flying around the chapel, they would occasionally explore other parts of the building thus requiring faculty members to be called upon to capture and release the creatures back into outdoors. The bats would most likely fly through a hole and return to the interior of the building.

Bees, on the other hand, acquired the most complaints. Many believed they entered the building via deteriorating windows. However, during a minor remodeling project, construction crews found a massive beehive on the third floor of Morrill Hall. The crew then had to call entomology and have the beehive removed – along with a sizeable amount of honey.

Then there was the camel. As a circus was parading through downtown Ames sometime in the 1870’s, a camel keeled over in the middle of the parade. Billy Brian, a man who loved taxidermy and had a history of the profession, offered to take the carcass off of the circus managers hands free of charge.

Being hot day in Ames, it didn’t take long to agree to the decision. After being restored and given the presence of what seemed to be a critter in good health, the camel was added to the Morrill Hall museum after Bryan graduated. Unfortunately, the camel experienced another death. Details are still unclear whether a pipe burst or water leaked in to the building. Either way, the stuffed camel was soaked – and exploded.

Being deemed unsafe in 1996, the building was on the brink of demolition before President Greogory Geoffroy announced a private campaign in 2002 to raise funds to save and restore the building. Having more than 3,300 donors, $7.4 million of the $10.3 million of renovation costs was raised, being one of the largest grassroots fund-raising efforts in Iowa State history.

The newly refurbished Morrill Hall reopened in 2007.

In 2008, the renovated Morrill Hall became the first building as an Iowa State regent institution to achieve LEED certification as well as being the seventh building in Iowa with the designation. Achieving the LEED is a benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance sustainability of the building.