[2] Wheelwright's design was inspired in part by an old church in Jamestown, Virginia,[3] and by the Flemish Renaissance details of Auburn Street buildings in its vicinity.

After initially promising to install it on top of a building at Moscow State University, the delegation returned the statue.

[6] The building cost approximately $40,000 to construct, making it then the most expensive headquarters of a college newspaper in the United States.

[2] After the building was first constructed, it initially hosted a small store on the ground floor in addition to the Harvard Lampoon offices and meeting spaces on the other floors;[3] for years the site housed a used book shop, Starr Books.

In 2023 a major restoration project led to the installation of a second fire escape to the building, numerous structural repairs, and the return of Ludowici tile to the roof decades after its removal in the mid-1950s.

[7] Barrett Wendell once described the building as "sturdily honest as the founder who designed it, yet laughing at every turn with freakish gayety and beauty.

The Harvard Lampoon refused to confirm or deny involvement in the event[11] and a smaller tree was planted in its place.