What began in 1912 as Bolivar County Agricultural High School became Delta State Teachers College in 1924, Delta State College in 1955, and Delta State University in 1974. Older buildings cluster around a long, green quadrangle. Cleveland Hall (1927, N. W. Overstreet) established a design model for the institution with its variegated, diaper-patterned brick in muted tones, a scattering of Mediterranean-style features, and classical details. Ward Hall (1929–1930, C. H. Lindsley) is a variation on Overstreet’s themes, and Lindsley also designed the three-story Broom Hall (1928–1929) with its tall, baroque limestone entrance. North of it, the one-story former library (1939, R. W. Naef), now the Fielding L. Wright Art Center, has a delicate triple-arched entrance. Across the quadrangle, Zeigel Hall (1960) is another traditional design though executed by one of the state’s preeminent modernists, James T. Canizaro.
Increased enrollment after World War II required many new buildings, notable among them the New Formalist H. L. Nowell Student Union (1974, McRee, Dardaman and Kennington), which terminates the quad’s south end, and the Walter Sillers Coliseum (1961, Mattingly and Biggers). The Young-Mauldin Dining Hall (1963–1965, William R. Allen and W. W. Easley II) is a circular modernist building with canted window walls and a metallic dome. On the north side of W. Sunflower Road, Kent Wyatt Hall (2003) by Eley Associates is a modern remix of Overstreet, Lindsley, and Naef’s earlier forms.