In 1949 Edison C. Nickel built a one story cinder-block potato chip factory adjacent to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, near the South College building. Despite protests from Carlisle residents who believed that the factory would be a nuisance and a threat to the health and welfare of the community, the factory went into operation.   Dickinson College offered to purchase the building in 1953, but the offer was withdrawn because of a disagreement over price. 

The College eventually purchased the building for $16,000 in 1957 with the intention to convert it into a rifle range. This plan was never carried out, however, and the building was instead leased to and renovated by various agencies of the federal government, including the Agency for International Development and the General Services Agency. Although these agencies had already been leasing space in East College, the government’s use of the structure became the subject of student concern on multiple occasions, as rumors of connections with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Carlisle War College, and the Carlisle Police Department arose.  One actual use for the building most probably was as the site of the emergency headquarters of the Labor Department of the United States should nuclear war decimate Washington DC.

In 1986, the College again assumed full control over the building, using it as the Women’s Center and the Central Pennsylvania Consortium Office. Currently, the building is generally considered as an annex of South College and in 2004 housed the computer workshops and storage areas of Dickinson's Library and Information Services.