Erected in late spring 1871 as part of President Robert Dashiell's ambitious campus improvement campaign at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the pagoda was a pentagonal wooden gazebo that stood near the south wall on the John Dickinson campus.  Designed to be a prominent campus fixture, the structure was painted in brilliant colors of white and chrome yellow with accents in red and ultramarine blue.  The pagoda was nestled in a small grove of trees that dotted the campus, and was the site for many campus gatherings such as Class Day exercises during commencement. 

The structure would be the only accomplishment of Dashiell's plan for the College, except for a few minor repairs to the president's residence in East College and the West College belfry.  Nevertheless, the pagoda was much used by the college community for fifteen years.  The Dickinsonian of March 1886 states that on March 3, the pagoda was damaged beyond repair by a strong wind, with perhaps the assistance of a few preparatory school students.  According to the faculty minutes for April 5, 1886, a motion was passed that Harry Pearce and H. U. Johnson, both Prep School students, were required to find off campus housing and were not to be found on the College campus upon pain of expulsion.  The following year, Johnson returned to the Prep School and even lived in South College, although he did not enroll in the freshman class after that year.  The pagoda, destroyed either by wind or by schoolboy mischief, was never rebuilt.