The original Lincoln Hall opened in 1888 to house the Schools of Civil Engineering and Architecture.

The brick facade--across the quad from the earlier stone buildings--led to great consternation on the part of A. D. White, who called the trustees' decision to allow such architecture "cheap and nasty." A second brick edifice, Tjaden Hall, has since been built across the quad. It's hard to guess what the university's first president might say of the nearby I. M. Pei-designed Johnson Museum of Art, built entirely of concrete.

The College of Engineering has its own quad now, and the Department of Music occupies Lincoln. In the late 1990s, the building was renovated and refurbished to include increased practice space and digital recording facilities.