Ole Miss Notes from the Past: The 1840’s Before Opening the University, Part IV

Members of the Mississippi House and Senate were kept informed about progress of the buildings on the campus of the new University. The first three paragraphs of the following report describe the “principal edifice,” to be called the Lyceum at a later time. The two dormitories were located where Peabody Hall and Brevard Hall are now. The “four dwelling houses” for faculty members were actually only two buildings, accommodating two families in each section. They were located where Bryant Hall and Carrier Hall are currently located. The cafeteria was located just west of the Lyceum. What is now the Circle is described in the last paragraph.

“The University Buildings consist of a principal edifice to be devoted entirely to Academic pursuits. The plan is a parallelograms 90 feet by 55, and its technically termed Prostyle, having a … portico on the entrance front. The proportions of the columns and entabliture of the portico are taken from the Grecian Ionic Temple on the Illyssus near Athens.

In the divisions of the first floor there are two recitation rooms  and a laboratory with a spacious hall for apparatus and lectures, illustrative of Chemistry, Electricity, Geology, &e. &e., and for methodizing the science of Agriculture—that key-stone of the fabric of the prosperity and happiness of the people of Mississippi. On the second floor is a lecture room 52 feet by 24 feet, and two recitation rooms 30 by 26 feet.

On the third story, a Library and Museum and two ample Society rooms. 

The two Dormitories are each 120 feet by 32 feet three stories high —they are divided into 72 rooms, 15 feet by 15 feet—well lighted ventilated and fire place in each.

The four dwelling houses for the Faculty will each be provided with six commodious family rooms, kitchen, out-houses and a garden.

The Hotel or Stewards Hall, is provided with a large dining room, store room and larder, on the lower floor, and comfortable family rooms for the keeper on the second story.  The kitchen is fitted with every convenience for culinary purposes—chambers for servants and the garden can be any desirable extent—and to invite some general family to seek the management of the establishment every effort has been made to render it roomie, convenient and respectable.

The disposition of the several buildings is on the out side of a semi-circular avenue 200 yards in diameter, rising with a gentle ascent from the ends to centre of summit where the principal edifice with its commanding portico is raised. At each end of the semi-circle is a block of dwelling houses for the faculty with their appendages and midway between these and the principal building  are not dormitories—-leaving a space of 150 feet between the buildings.  The area formed by the avenue, when forced will present a space for Botanic experiment &e.”