St. Ambrose University was founded in 1882 by John McMullen, the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.

[2] The school was formally incorporated as a "seminary" in 1885, however, its mission was never exclusively considered as a place that trained future priests.

[3] It was typical at that time to cloister seminarians at an early age away and educating them separately from other people.

Bishop Henry Cosgrove, McMullen's successor, initially chose the corner of Eighth and Ripley Streets as the new location for the school, as it would be convenient for the day students.

He was concerned that the location was too isolated and inaccessible, and Locust Street was not a decent roadway.

In the end, convinced that the location was accessible by way of the Brady Streetcar line, Cosgrove bought Noel's Grove.

[5] Aloysius Schulte, the college president, and James Davis, the cathedral rector, toured the diocese to solicit funds for the project.

The Congregation of the Humility of Mary was placed in charge of the dining room, cooking, and housekeeping.

A grotto with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary lies just north of Ambrose Hall.

It has housed classrooms, dormitory, chapel, faculty residence, offices, student union, laundry, and dining facilities.

In 2013, the university undertook a $5 million renovation project to bring the building back to its late 19th and early 20th-century appearance.

[3] The features that are common to all the sections include round-arch windows and doorways with stone hood molds and keystones.

It is a symmetrical structure of seven bays wide with a central pavilion capped by a mansard tower.

The lower level is composed of smooth rusticated ashlar and brick on the upper floors with stone quoining on the corners.

The fifth section of the building remedied this problem when it was added in 1912 to the front facade of the fourth addition.