The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Ballard Hall

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Ballard Hall (early view), Tougaloo College

Ballard Hall (front facade, view from the south), Tougaloo College

Institution Name: Tougaloo College
Original/Historic Place Name: Tougaloo Preparatory School
Location on Campus: historic core of campus
Date(s) of Construction and Designer(s):

1886	original construction Unknown

Type of Place: Individual building
Style(s): (Glossary)
Materials:

Foundation: masonry

Walls: wood (frame); timber (frame)

Roof: metal

Function:

ca. 1886	classrooms (originally it was the main academic building, for primary and intermediate level students)
1886-1901	chapel
ca. 2004-present (2007)	academic department building (music and drama)

Significance: culture, education, history, religion
Landmark designation:

National Register

Tougaloo College (1998)

Narrative: see below
References: see below

Narrative:
Ballard Hall is the oldest surviving academic building at Tougaloo College. It is named for Steven Ballard, a Tougaloo College Trustee from Brooklyn, New York, who paid for its construction. At that time, Tougaloo College's industrial arts students built both Ballard Hall and the Ballard Shops (no longer in existence) with his $5,000 investment. Daily devotional services were held in Ballard Hall's second floor prior to the construction of the Woodworth Chapel in 1901.

Ballard Hall is a two-story, Italianate wood frame building with cross-gabled metal roof and brick foundation. Although it presently serves as home for the music and drama departments, this building is in dire need of restoration. The foundation requires stabilization; the exterior siding and windows are in need of major repair. The metal roof, which may be original to the building, also needs to be replaced, and the interior of the structure requires total restoration.

References:

I. Bibliographic sources:

Campbell, Clarice T., and Oscar Allan Rogers, Jr. Mississippi: The View from Tougaloo. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press, 1979 and 2002.

Campus Planning and Development Assessment [Tougaloo College]. National Park Service report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1989.

Dixon, John Morris. "How to Grow a Campus: 1. Tougaloo College." Architectural Forum 124 (April 1966): 56-60.

Historical Sketch of Tougaloo University: Tougaloo, Mississippi. [s.l.:] American Missionary Association, 1909.

Mayo, Amory Dwight. Industrial Education in the South. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1888.

Mississippi State Building Commission. "Physical Facilities, Institutions of Higher Learning, State of Mississippi, Public and Private Institutions." Report. 1967-1968.

"Negro." WPA Records, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, MS.

"Tougaloo College." WPA Records, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, MS.

U.S. Congress. House Committee on Natural Resources. Historically Black Colleges and Universities Historic Building Restoration and Preservation Act: Report Together with Dissenting Views (To Accompany H.R. 2921) (Including Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office.) [Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1993.]

Wise, Deborah G. Tougaloo College Historic District. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1998.

II. Location of other data:

University: Library, Special Collections, Facilities Management Office

SHPO

Government Offices