It is believed to be the first building on a campus of higher education in the United States with air conditioning.

In 1936, when the university was still located at South Main Baptist Church, Houston philanthropists Julius Settegast and Ben Taub donated conjoining pieces of land totaling 110 acres (45 hectares) to the university.

Hugh Roy Cullen—a wealthy businessman—and his wife Lillie Cullen donated a combined $335,000 for the first permanent building to be built at the campus.

The building was named the "Roy Gustav Cullen Memorial Building" as a memorial to the Cullens' only son who had died in an oil field accident two years earlier.

Cullen would later serve as Chairman of the Board of Regents for the university—and before his death in 1957—had donated over $11 million to the University of Houston.