Steensland Hall was the gift of Halle Steensland (1832-1910), vice-consul for Norway and Sweden in Madison, Wis. His $13,000 building bequest was the largest contribution St. Olaf had ever received. Consul Steensland had originally offered the money to the United Church Seminary (now Luther Seminary) in St. Paul, but when the seminary declined to build a library, President John N. Kildahl assured him that St. Olaf would happily accept his gift.

The college still lacked a chapel, but President Kildahl agreed with a student writer that "the most indispensable equipment of a college is its library." The reading room in the St. Olaf Main had grown "disorderly" and crowded, making it difficult for some students to become "sufficiently acquainted with the books" in the library collection (Manitou Messenger, May 1900 and November 1902).