Van Wormer Hall was originally designed as the campus library, “in accordance with the most approved modern plans of library construction”. On the main floor, the reading and periodical rooms were located on either side of the rotunda. The upper floors housed a collection of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society volumes and pamphlets, as well as research and seminar rooms. On the bottom level were seminar, receiving, and packing rooms.

Asa Van Wormer contacted the university trustees and announced in 1898 that he would provide 1,000 shares of stock in the Cincinnati Street Railway Co. to fund a library for the University of Cincinnati.

He specified that the gift was made in memory of his wife, Julia, who had died the year before. The gift amounted to approximately $50,000 and didn’t quite cover the total cost of building and furnishing the library, but Van Wormer stepped up to cover the overrun.