[2] The Highland Town Company offered to give the university forty-eight additional lots and a sum of $1,200 if the board of trustees would construct a building within a three-year time span at a cost of greater than or equal value of $6,000.

[4] The Corner Stone for Irvin Hall was laid on May 11, 1858, accompanied by speeches by local leaders.

One of Highland University's founders Samuel Irvin said at the laying of the cornerstone that only a few years had passed that "savage Indians" had roamed the area.

he also added in his speech "now with the laying of the cornerstone civilization and education have taken the place of savagery and debauchery... he saw no reason why a Harvard or Yale College should not be built here..."[5] The first floor of what was supposed to be the east wing of building was completed as a one-story classroom building in 1858 in time for the school year that fall.

The facade uses flat stone lintels over the windows and doors, with pilasters and a brickwork pattern on two side.

[6] The university building was officially renamed Irvin Hall in 1925 named for Rev.

Samuel M. Irvin, a missionary at the Iowa and Sac & Fox Mission State Historic Site and a founder of Highland Community College (Kansas).