[4] Chancellor Barnard, who was fond of astronomy, designed the observatory to house the world's largest refracting telescope.

[7] Professor Alexander Quinche and Burton Harrison, entrusted by the board of trustees to safekeep the university, lived in the observatory's quarters.

Due to Oxford's proximity to much of the war, many buildings in town and on campus were used by armed forces, including the observatory which served as a hospital.

[4] However, it was the former chancellor's relationship with General William Tecumseh Sherman that spared both the observatory and the university from Union troops burning it down.

"I assure you that last November, when I rode through the grounds of the College and Oxford, I thought of you and.... thought I saw the traces of your life in the Observatory, of which I remember you spoke...."In addition to the observatory's use as a hospital, it has also been home to the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the early 1900s,[10] the Department of Naval Sciences, and the Alpha Xi Delta sorority.