In June 1940, members of the Iona School community, along with members of the school's Mothers’ Club, gathered to dedicate a new science building on the school's campus – the building that the Mothers’ Club has raised $100,000 to build. It was there that they learned that just one day prior, not only had permission been granted to form Iona College on the same campus as the Iona School, but that the College would be commandeering the new science building for its own. The building would be named Cornelia Hall after the first president of the new Iona College.