The 80,805-square-foot Engineering Building, designed by Barber and McMurry and built by the V. L. Nicholson Company at a cost of $994,000 was completed in December 1949. It was dedicated on March 6, 1950, in a formal ceremony in Alumni Memorial Building, followed by tours of both Perkins and Ferris Halls. Ford L. Wilson, former UT faculty member serving as president of Rose Polytechnic Institute, was the principal speaker at the dedication. Major Thomas H. Allen of Memphis, chairman of the UT Board of Trustees, presented the building to President Brehm, who accepted for the university.
The building is named for Dr. Charles A. Perkins, who assumed his duties as associate professor of physics and electricity in the fall of 1892, was chair of the Engineering Department before engineering became a separate college, was a member of the faculty of the Department of Pharmacy in the late 1890s, and served as the first director of UT’s Engineering Experiment Station. Perkins Hall replaced Carrick Hall, which burned in 1942.