原名格致室，又称科学馆。1998年改名为格致楼。2018年，华东政法大学对格致楼进行了长达10个月的文保修缮。
格致是格物致知的略语，圣约翰大学的格致室以此为名。1898年11月20日，格致室举行奠基。1899年7月19日，新楼落成启用。格致室是当时中国所有院校中第一座专门教授自然科学的校舍，也被叫作科学馆。
“Gezhi” is an abbreviation of Ge Wu Zhi Zhi (meaning “to know is to investigate” ), which gave the name of the Gezhi Hall of St. John’s University. On November 20, 1898, a groundbreaking ceremony of the Gezhi Hall held, and on July 19, 1899, the new building was put into use. At that time, among all the colleges and universities in China, the Gezhi Hall was the first building that was used specifically for teaching natural science, and that’s why it was also known as the Science Hall.
格致室为三层砖木结构。西侧墙面与韬奋楼相似，南立面为城堡式，增加了其古态，内曾设有人力升降器。建筑为中式大屋顶，屋檐飞扬起翘。底层为公共廊，落地长窗，二三层用玻璃弧拱窗全封闭。三层楼为U字形，中部装有玻璃天窗，可采自然阳光。
The three-storey Gezhi Hall adopted a brick-and-timber structure. The wall on the west side is similar to that of the Taofen Building, and the south facade was castle-like, adding to an antique taste. There used to be a man-powered lift inside. The building took over a typical Chinese roof with upturned eaves. The ground floor was a public corridor with long floor-to-ceiling windows, while the first and second floors were fully enclosed with arched glass windows. The second floor was U-shaped, with a glass skylight in the middle to allow natural sunlight in.
2018年华东政法大学对格致楼进行了长达10个月的文保修缮：使用传统工艺修复清水墙，让墙面可以“呼吸”；恢复木窗，增设纱窗，兼顾原貌和保温节能；实物打样，恢复屋脊飞檐翘角；重现外廊，恢复中庭，呼应建筑整体风貌。这次修缮也是“圣约翰历史建筑群”首例按照文物保护“不改变原物形状”的原则，进行修缮复原的典型实例，为今后历史建筑群的保护提供了可贵的借鉴。
In 2018, East China University of Political Science and Law carried out a 10-month-long renovation of the Gezhi Building, using traditional technology to repair the dry walls to allow the walls to “breathe”; restoring the wooden windows and adding screen windows to make it look original as well as energy-saving; proofing with real building objects to restore the cornices and the curved shape of the corners of the roof; and reproducing the veranda and restoring the atrium to echo the overall style of the building. This renovation project has also become the first typical example of repairing and restoring “St. John’s Historical Building Complex” in the principle of “maintaining the shape of the original objects” in terms of protection of cultural relics, providing valuable reference for the protection of other historical building complexes.
