In fall 1958 more than 600 women who applied for UT housing could not be accommodated. In March 1959 UT announced plans for a new women’s dormitory to be located on the west side of what was then known as West Hall and is now named Greve Hall. The new residence hall was originally designed to house 608 women, but could be stretched to accommodate 686. The double-room facility’s rooms were designed to be the same size as Greve’s, but more closet space was provided. The seven-story, U-shaped building is located 40 feet behind Greve, and the two buildings form a quadrangle. Two elevators were included in the 133,000-square-foot building.
The dorm opened in fall 1960 and was dubbed the “Freshman Conrad Hilton” by a parent of one of the new residents. Originally known as West Hall—Unit A, or New West Hall, the board of trustees named it Massey Hall in honor of UT’s first dean of students, Felix Massey, in October 1967. A suggestion box for students to submit names for West Hall A had been placed in the residence hall. Some of the names suggested were Holt Hall, Dr. Ruth Stephens Hall, Cunninggim Hall, Residence Hall, Bay of Pigs, and Frog Pond Hall.
The building was paid for by a federal loan, to be repaid from rentals from both West Hall (now Greve) and West Hall Unit A (now Massey). Architects for the project were Barber and McMurry, and the general contractor was V. L. Nicholson Company, whose construction bid was $1,648,310.
In fall 1985 Alpha Gamma Delta Sorority members resided together in half a wing’s floor in Massey, beginning the practice of sororities leasing a floor of a wing to live together. The facility housed exclusively members of sororities from 1987 to 2008, when sorority housing was relocated to the newly renovated Laurel Apartments.