 The building was completed in 1872 at a cost of US $ 63 @,@ 201 @.@ 54 ( 2013 : US $ 1 @,@ 215 @,@ 365 ) . Geology Hall 's first floor provided the college with rooms for laboratory and lecture instruction and housed the college 's armory . The first @-@ floor classrooms would accommodate the college 's physics , military science , and geology departments . Geology Hall also provided instruction space for courses in agriculture , chemistry and engineering for several years , until Rutgers built New Jersey Hall ( 1889 ) to house the Agricultural Experiment Station , and buildings for the Chemistry and Engineering departments ( 1909 and 1910 respectively ) across Hamilton Street on land that became the college 's Voorhees Mall . Geology Hall 's second floor was designed to provide sufficient space to house the college 's natural history artefacts and geological specimens as a museum . 
