On November 26, 1919 (at 9:15 a.m.), the first brick was laid for the new building by Blanche Bingham, a sophomore from Bell Buckle who had been elected to represent the students. Although without ceremony or speeches, the event was attended by a large number of students and faculty. Bingham had a union card pinned on her dress and used a trowel made from a piece of cedar wood from the tower of Old College and iron supports from the same building. The first brick was taken from the brick of Old College. Men working on the building presented Bingham with a five-pound box of chocolates.
In March 1920 a formal cornerstone-laying ceremony was held. At the conclusion of the speeches, William Patton Hoskins, son of James D. Hoskins, placed cement on the outer edges of a little box containing a variety of documents, sealing the box and documents into the foundation. Union members’ objections to a nonunion person handling a trowel on the job were solved when they declared young Hoskins an honorary member of the International Bricklayers’ Union.
The cornerstone contains a picture of Old College, one of the buildings razed for construction of Ayres; a copy of the legislative Bill appropriating $1 million for construction of UT buildings; copies of the Tennessee Alumnus, Orange and White, the Tennessee Farmer, the University Magazine, the Volunteer, and other campus publications; copies of the constitutions of various student organizations and clubs; and a union card from International Bricklayers Lodge Number 3. Ayres Hall was completed in 1921.