BATON ROUGE - It's a long trek to the top that not many people have made, 176 very steep steps to be exact.

Given its stately outside appearance, the inside of LSU's Memorial Tower might be a little underwhelming.

The machine that controls the clock sits in a mostly empty room, and the famous bells that chime every fifteen minutes--a recording. But the 360-degree view from nearly 175 feet in the air makes it worth it.

The building was built back in the 1920s as a World War I memorial. Since then, it's been a lot of different things

"It's always been a functioning memorial to the veterans, in particular, those who are graduates of LSU. But it's also served as museum space and meeting space and various things over the years," explained Roger Husser with LSU Planning, Design and Construction.

Recently, LSU decided to do a complete overhaul of the inside of the building at the base of the tower and bring a lot of cosmetic fixes to the outside.

"The idea with the renovation is really to restore it back to what it was originally built for and like in 1926," Husser said.

The renovation has uncovered some interesting things--some old black and white photos, spent bullet casings, and colorful murals.

Preserving nearly a century's worth of history isn't cheap. The renovation of the tower will cost around $6.8 Million--partially funded by the state and private donors.

The full renovation is expected to be completed by fall of 2020.