In 1926 the Millsaps-Wilson Library was first established on the site it occupies today. The original library, which had separate reading rooms for male and female students, was made possible by a $50,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation. In 1955, Mr. and Mrs. H.J. Wilson of Hazlehurst, Miss., funded the construction of the current library building, designed to accommodate a student body of 1,000 and to house 85,000 volumes. In 1971, the library facilities were further expanded, doubling the floor space, seating, and shelving capacities of the existing library.

Today, the Millsaps-Wilson Library contains over 200,000 volumes, 655 periodical subscriptions, and a wide variety of electronic services, including online and CD-ROM databases that are available to students via the internet. The library houses approximately 400 seats in individual study carrels, tables, and private study rooms as well as browsing and lounge areas. Facilities also include a wide variety of audio-visual materials and listening/viewing rooms. In addition to these offerings, the library also maintains the Millsaps College Archives and several special collections for student use.

• a 16th-century Bible
• signed first editions of most works by Eudora Welty
• a 17th-century copy of Walter Raleigh’s The History of the World
• an over-sized Illustrations of the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare (1852)

There are also signed works by many authors, including:

• Robert Frost
• Ogden Nash
• e.e. cummings
• Pearl S. Buck
• Edgar Lee Masters
• William Faulkner
• Thornton Wilder

Murrah Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, was built in 1914. After “Old Main” (one of the College’s original classroom and office buildings) was destroyed in a fire, Murrah Hall was constructed in its place. The structure underwent a $1.3 million renovation in 1981, and is the home of the Millsaps Else School of Management. Undergraduate programs offered in the Else School include accounting, business administration, and economics.

Murrah Hall houses the modern language department, offering language lab facilities where students can view television programs from all over the world via satellite, use computer tutorials to help them study, and listen to pronunciation recordings. In addition, the modern language department organizes summer study abroad programs. Murrah Hall also contains computer labs for student use, an 80-seat lecture room, and several student study rooms.

Murrah Hall also features life-sized portraits of past Millsaps presidents.

The Franklin W. Olin Hall of Science was dedicated during Millsaps Founder’s Day Weekend on February 13, 1988. In 1985, Millsaps competed with over 200 other colleges nationwide to receive a $5.5 million grant from the Olin Foundation Inc. The proceeds from this grant, which is one of the largest single gifts Millsaps has ever received, were used to equip a new science building for the College’s biology and chemistry departments. Located in the central part of the campus, the building is over 55,300 square feet and looks out over the Millsaps Bowl.

The facility houses a computer lab, a lecture hall, a botany lab and greenhouse, faculty offices and classrooms, and over $300,000 of specialized lab equipment including a nuclear magnetic resonator, a refrigerated centrifuge, an environmental chamber, a scanning electron microscope, and an atomic absorption lab.

Olin Hall also houses the W.M. Keck Center for Instrumental and Biochemical Comparative Archaeology Lab. This lab is devoted to the interdisciplinary, scientific study of past human behavior with regards to archaeometric and biochemical research methods.

The Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex, one of the largest buildings on campus, is a vital part of student life. The complex houses the music, art, and political science departments and features a 450-seat recital hall.

The recital hall sets the scene for concerts by the Millsaps Singers and the Chamber Singers, opening convocation, annual talent shows, special guest performances, and the popular Millsaps Arts & Lecture Series. In addition to the recital hall, the complex offers private practice rooms for students interested in vocal or instrumental music.

Sky-lit art studios and the Millsaps Lewis Art Gallery dominate the third floor of the Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex. The gallery showcases traveling art exhibits and work by Millsaps students and faculty, and is also the location of choice for receptions and discussions with local artists.

The Windgate Visual Arts Center is the creative heart and soul of the Millsaps College campus, and the place where dreams and ideas take shape and form.

The Visual Arts Center boasts the finest in studio spaces for painting, drawing, ceramics, printing and papermaking, woodworking, sculpting (with a foundry) and digital art. The 17,300 square foot building sits on the west side of campus, adjacent to a new gate on West Street.

Find out more about the Windgate Visual Arts Center.

Sullivan-Harrell Hall houses the geology department and labs, faculty offices for education and physics, and the psychology and neuroscience, sociology and anthropology, mathematics, and political science departments. Originally dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 29, 1929, the building is named after two former science professors, G.L. Harrell and J.M. Sullivan, who were primarily responsible for the design of the building. In 1990, Sullivan-Harrell Hall was entirely renovated and now contains 28 faculty offices, 14 classrooms and seminar rooms, and 10 laboratories. Specialized labs include a high temperature room, an electron microscope room, an X-ray diffraction and emission room, an optics/laser laboratory, and a nuclear laboratory. In addition to these features, the building also houses commons areas and computer labs for student use.

Quick facts about Sullivan-Harrell

1. A bronze plaque on the second floor bears the only inscription found in the structure: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

2. Sullivan-Harrell Hall is headquarters for many global study opportunities, including geology field studies, archaeological digs in the Yucatan, and liberal studies abroad.

3. Departments housed in Sullivan-Harrell Hall offer several undergraduate research opportunities for students who are interested in getting hands-on experience in the lab.

A colonial brick structure, the Millsaps English House contains all the faculty offices for the English department, as well as a meeting room and a student lounge that are used for both readings and social gatherings. The house was originally built around 1950 as the President’s home, and the fireplace and kitchen built for resident use are still functional today.

Since English is one of the most popular majors on campus, Millsaps offers several language-related extra-curricular activities for interested students. the Stylus, Millsaps’ student literary magazine, is published twice a year. Millsaps also supports a chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, a national English honor society that promotes interest in literature and the English language. In addition, Millsaps students can join the English Club, which is open to students of all disciplines and hosts annual parties, readings, and other literary events.

Sometime during 1890 in the small town of Sun, Miss., William Lafayette Weems heard of plans to establish a Methodist college. Weems was a farmer with little formal education, but, as an active Methodist and community servant, he was sympathetic to the cause. When Weems confided to his brother Robert plans to sell a yoke of oxen and donate the proceeds to the first Millsaps fund drive, he was greeted with the skeptical response that he would never have a child who could attend the college. “Perhaps not,” Weems conceded, “but maybe one of my descendants can listen to a preacher who was educated at Millsaps.” As fate would have it, Weems and his wife Molly had nine children, two of whom went on to become Millsaps graduates.

In commemoration of a relationship spanning more than 100 years and 36 graduates, Dr. Lamar and Nanette Weems donated this beautiful home, which once served as their personal residence, to the College in 2000. Located at 1718 North State Street across from the main entrance to the College, the Weems House has become a special meeting place for the Millsaps community. Built in 1917, the home has served as host to numerous receptions, dinner parties, art exhibitions and other gatherings of faculty, staff, students and friends.

A traditional wood frame structure, John Stone Hall is currently the home of the Millsaps Writing Center and the Classical Studies department. The Writing Center is a program created to offer on-campus services to writers, providing help with research papers, aid in meeting the requirements for the Writing Portfolio, advice for taking essay exams or preparing for written portions of standardized tests, instruction on topic selection and focus, coaching on organizational strategies, and grammar, editing, and revision tutoring.

The 3,000 square foot, two-story building has a long history. It served as the president’s home until 1940, at which time it was converted to faculty apartments. In 1980, the “Old President’s Home” became the Chimneyville School of Crafts and Design. For the next 13 years, it offered instructional courses in such arts as woodworking, weaving, pottery, and jewelry. The building underwent another metamorphosis in 1993. At that time, the facility was renamed John Stone Hall after a prominent Millsaps alumnus, both a talented physician and an accomplished writer.

Whitworth and Sanders Hall house administrative offices for college staff. Sanders Hall, was built in 1951. Funds of approximately $100,000 were donated to the College in 1945 as a Christmas gift for the construction of Sanders Hall which was originally intended to be a building dedicated to the fine arts. However, in 1950, steeply increasing enrollment prompted the College Board to use this grant for a new women’s dormitory. Sanders Hall remained a women’s dormitory until November of 1993, when it was converted to administrative offices.

Whitworth Hall was built in 1939 as a dormitory for 44 women students. Since 1980, the building has been the location of many of the College’s administrative offices. Offices now located in Whitworth and Sanders Hall include, among others, Financial Aid, Alumni Relations, Communications and Marketing, Admissions, the President’s Office, and International Admissions.

In addition to serving the College and assisting students with their needs, the administrative offices of the College also employ Millsaps students for internship positions, offering students a convenient place to obtain on-the-job experience.

The Maurice H. Hall Activities Center, a gym and fitness center available for campus-wide use, was constructed in 2000. At 63,330 square feet, the building contains a fitness center with a basketball PAC interior court, a cardio theater and aerobics room, a full array of fitness and weight training equipment, and three racquetball/handball courts.

In addition to these features, the HAC also offers locker rooms, team rooms and rehab facilities for Millsaps athletes. The HAC is also the headquarters for Millsaps Athletics, housing office space for all athletics staff.

Behind the HAC lie the Millsaps athletic fields. Harper Davis football field, two soccer fields, softball pitch, six tennis courts, and baseball’s night-lit Twenty Field cover the northern quadrant of campus and provide both varsity and intramural sports teams with quality playing space.

HAC Hours of Operation

Fall/Spring 
Monday-Thursday, 7am-10pm
Friday, 7am-7pm
Saturday, 2pm-7pm
Sunday, 12pm-7pm

Summer 
Monday – Friday, 8am-7pm

Please contact us at hac@millsaps.edu or 601.974.1189 with questions or comments.

Greek life is an integral part of Millsaps life. Millsaps fraternities and sororities sponsor a wide variety of charity events, including food drives, talent shows, dance-a-thons, silent auctions, casino nights, and more. Collectively, these chapters raise over $30,000 annually for their philanthropic endeavors. These organizations also spearhead campus clean-up days and Habitat for Humanity efforts; however, Greek life is not all work and no play. In addition to their philanthropic pursuits,Greek organizations on campus host a variety of social events including formals, ice cream socials, tailgate parties, and picnics.

Millsaps hosts four sororities and five fraternities on campus. Sorority row is comprised of several lodges where sorority members hold chapter meetings and plan events. Sororities at Millsaps include Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Delta, and Phi Mu.

Fraternity row is made up of houses where fraternity members hold meetings and host events. Fraternity members at Millsaps also have the option of residing in their respective houses. Fraternities on campus include Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon.