A Lombardic Romanesque building,[1] Alumni Hall was built in 1910 and was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

[3] As time passed and space ran out in Old Main, the university sought a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Corporation to build a new library on campus.

In 1922 funding from the university and the Carnegie Corporation enable an Eastern wing designed by Ralph Ridley to be added to the existing building.

Designed by Potter Tyler & Martin this addition was funded by the State of Ohio and added more stacks to the building.

Alumni Hall is also attributed as the inspiration behind Marian Boyd Havighurst's 1934 mystery novel, Murder in the Stacks and sequences from the film Little Man Tate, directed and starring Jodie Foster, were filmed within the rotunda for Alumni Hall.