The NRHP Lyceum-The Circle Historic District at the University of Mississippi, at Oxford MS, consists of 12 contributing buildings at and around the University Drive Circle at the historic entrance to the university.
From the National Park Service: (
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“Summary of Significance
Between September 30 and October 1, 1962, the Lyceum, The Circle, and surrounding buildings played an integral role in the turbulent events associated with the racial desegregation of the University of Mississippi. On these dates, segregationist rioters clashed with federal troops over the court-ordered admittance of African-American student James Meredith. The tumultuous event marked a decisive turning point in the federal government’s enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the decline of violent southern massive resistance to school desegregation.
Describe Present and Historic Physical Appearance. Located at the center of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) campus in Oxford, Mississippi, the Lyceum-The Circle Historic District contains a collection of eight academic buildings arranged around the perimeter of an interior common called “The Circle.”1 Three resources date to the university’s very beginning: the Lyceum (1848), University Circle (1848), and the Croft Institute for International Studies (the “Y” Building, 1853). The remaining six buildings: the Old Chemistry Building and Carrier, Shoemaker, Ventress, Bryant, and Peabody Halls, were built between the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. These buildings feature Neoclassical Revival detailing and are built of brick, limestone, and concrete. The common is more oval than circular in shape and comprises a landscaped green with mature oaks, magnolias, and pine. A network of paths radiate outwards from a central flagpole, and a Confederate memorial statue commands a prominent point at the eastern edge. An asphalt-paved roadway designated as “University Circle” encircles the green.
All of the buildings, structures, sites, objects, and the green in the Lyceum-The Circle Historic District, are contributing resources. These resources and the district as a whole retain a high degree of integrity in their location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The following narrative describes each of the resources in the district, assesses their integrity, and notes the roles these resources played in the desegregation of Ole Miss. Narrative building descriptions (other than the Lyceum) focus on the exterior since the activities occurring inside the buildings were limited in scope.
Contributing Resources:
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4. Confederate Monument. Standing almost 35’ high, the marble Confederate memorial features four sections: a base or plinth, sub-column, column or shaft, and a soldier. The sub column is fashioned in the likeness of a castle or chess rook and contains the inscription “To Our Confederate Dead, 1861-1865, Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter 379 U.D.C.” Cavalry swords cross at the base. A Confederate flag adorns the east side of the column. The soldier topping the monument looks off to the distance with a rifle at his side. The monument also displays a passage from Lord Byron’s epic poem “The Siege of Corinth.” This monument has occupied its place in The Circle since 1906. Representatives from both sides of the clashing forces used the flagpole and Confederate monument as rallying points."