The second university building to be known as Morrill Hall was dedicated on May 28, 1908, and housed not only the Agricultural College headquarters but also botany, zoology, and entomology. This building, four stories high (with a basement), 160 feet wide and 60 feet deep, was located on the Hill where Hesler Biology Building now stands. It was the second building to be built with funds appropriated by the Tennessee legislature. (The 1906 addition to Estabrook was the first.) It was designed by Charles Ferris, an engineering faculty member who later became dean of the College of Engineering.
When the agricultural departments moved to the agricultural campus in 1921, with the completion of Morgan Hall, Morrill Hall was used by zoology, botany, bacteriology, and entomology. The basement was devoted to work in veterinary science and dairying. The building burned January 18, 1934, resulting in the loss of the 30,000-specimen herbarium; Dr. H. M. Jennison’s collection of specimens and data on mosses, ferns, and flowering plants of the Great Smoky Mountains; a manuscript of a technical paper with illustrations of mushrooms representing five years’ work by Dr. L. R. Hesler; a checklist of Tennessee ferns and flowering plants of 1929 that had been revised for publication and of which no other copy existed; other professors’ papers; the offices, records and specimens of the Tennessee State Entomologist and Plant Pathologist (G. M. Bentley) and the Tennessee State Horticulturist (E. M. Prather); a PhD dissertation virtually completed; Professor Margaret Shipe’s two pet goldfish; a family of pink-nosed guinea pigs; the family pet bird dog (Spot) of Dr. Graeme Canning (parasitologist); a master’s thesis; microscopes; other student projects; and various equipment and specimens. A Gila monster owned by the Biology Department survived as firemen unknowingly showered it with water while extinguishing the fire. A chemical explosion was believed responsible for the fire.