The Gothic Revival structure was designed to serve LaGrange College when this Methodist institution relocated from Franklin to Lauderdale county and subsequently was renamed and rechartered as Florence Wesleyan University.

[4] In late 1864, shortly before his ill-fated involvement in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Confederate General John Bell Hood occupied the building.

Following the war, Dr. Septimus Rice was the University's sole instructor, teaching classes in the Preparatory School and holding college-level courses in Wesleyan Hall.

During this period, the halls of Wesleyan remained unheated, so stoves were used to warm classrooms, while coal oil lamps were employed for lighting.

A dilapidated white-washed board fence stood along the perimeter of the Wesleyan grounds to prevent livestock owned by nearby townspeople from wandering onto campus.

On the south side of the structure in a similar state of disrepair stood a number of old stables used to quarter horses of local country boys attending the school.