It is situated on a gentle slope called "College Hill," just west of the city's commercial center on the west bank of the Willamette River, there anchoring what remains of the school's original buildings on the "Lower Campus" (given with current names and years built): Apperson Hall (1899), Benton Annex (1892), Education Hall (1902) and Gladys Valley Gymnastics Center (1898).

The ensuing sheriff's sale resulted in ownership of the building, the land and the school operating there (Corvallis College) transferring to Rev.

By 1885, calls from local leaders were growing loud to convert it to a state institution which would be eligible for federal funds under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts and the church agreed to relinquish control.

[3] In response, the Oregon State Legislature passed an act that reorganized the school as the state's agricultural college, but skeptical of the actual awarding of land-grant status it decided to require the citizens of Benton County to bear the full costs for the construction of a suitable building to house its offices, which the act required to be no less than $25,000 (equivalent to $675,000 in 2020), and if successful the building would become de jure property of the state upon completion through eminent domain.

The 1880 census had reported only 1,400 households within the entire county, but less than two years later the sum had been raised, permits secured and construction began on the building still standing today, largely unchanged, as Community Hall.