The sciences, very important to the curriculum from the very start, needed a building with laboratories and facilities dedicated to that discipline. By 1914, it was a priority for the school to build proper housing for the sciences.
This was the first building to be named for a person, Col. Sydney Haymond, a Trustee from 1906 until his death in 1912. His wife, Virginia, was appointed to the board in his place, one of the first three women to serve in that capacity. She generously provided money for the building in his memory, as well as for furnishings and equipment, but that gift has come to symbolize the love and support they both shared for the college.
Haught, T.W. (1940) West Virginia Wesleyan College 1890-1940, p. 153-154