Greene-Talbot-Talley Halls Historic District

The Greene-Talbot-Talley Halls Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 13, 2023, is located near the north end of the Southern Arkansas University (SAU) campus in Magnolia (Columbia County), south of the intersection of East Lane Drive and North Washington Street.

The three dormitory buildings that make up the district, built in 1962–1966, are examples of architecture using postwar principles, including the use of industrialized methods of construction. As such, these buildings represent a significant departure from the Colonial Revival style of architecture employed for most of the previous campus structures and are the only buildings on the SAU campus constructed in this style, which is also rarely seen in Magnolia. Modern Movement structures such as these suppressed ornamentation and allusion to historical styles and often used building components that were mass produced. Characteristics include blocky forms absent of ornamentation with predominant use of brick, glass, and exposed concrete slabs.

The architectural firm for this project was Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson of Little Rock (Pulaski County), who had also designed many other structures on the SAU campus. The general building contractor was Texarkana Construction Company, with Price Roark as structural engineer and the Little Rock firm of Blaylock, Cook, Threet and Associates as mechanical and electrical engineers.

The three dormitories feature separate buildings that are linked by elevated, glass-enclosed walkways with cast-concrete floors and roofs. The boundary of the historic district was determined by the fact that these buildings were designed as a cohesive grouping that is distinct from the architecture on the majority of the SAU campus. The district includes a non-contributing two-story cooling plant building that was added in the 1990s and sits roughly in the middle of the three dormitories. All four buildings have flat roofs with no eaves or overhangs and feature exposed concrete slabs. The three almost-identical dormitories have the same basic floor plan, appearance, layout, and orientation. Each dormitory has a two-story central building connected to three three-story satellite buildings by second-floor glass-enclosed hallways. Each central building has a freestanding metal sign with the name of the dormitory. The area has open lawns with large trees.

The architects described this design method as a “satellite house system,” where two students share a room, with twenty to twenty-four students living on each floor sharing bath facilities and a lounge. Three floors make up a “house” or unit, and three units share a central facility containing a lounge, a television room, a laundry, and an apartment for a house mother. The dorms housed only male students at the time they were built, but in the twenty-first century, Greene and Talley Halls are co-ed dorms, and Talbot Hall is an all-male dorm. The construction of these and other buildings on the college campus was part of a massive campus building program implemented during the administration of Dr. Imon E. Bruce (president from 1959 to 1976).

A special session of the Arkansas General Assembly in 1961 adopted Act 24, which established a Commission on the Coordination of Higher Education Finances. Southern State College (as SAU was then known) received $650,000 from this session. In October 1961, the College Board of Trustees approved using these funds, along with a $1 million loan from the U.S. Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA), for several campus construction projects, including a men’s dormitory. The board approved naming the new dormitory for Magnolia businessman Desmond Olmo Talbot, who served on the college board of trustees for thirty-eight years and was board chairman during the 1950s. Talbot Hall is the southernmost of the buildings in the district and was completed in 1963.

The next construction, Talley Hall, located to the northwest of Talbot Hall and completed in 1964 at a cost of $671,776, was named for Milton Boyce Talley. In 1936, then Magnolia A&M college president Charles A. Overstreet hired 1927 college alumnus Milton Talley as student worker supervisor for the fifty to sixty students employed each year by the New Deal–era National Youth Administration (NYA). Talley served as Dean of Students from 1953 to 1967. In 2023, Southern Arkansas University received a $2.013 million grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council (ANCRC), a portion of which was used for the restoration of Talley Hall.

In October 1962, the college Board of Trustees approved a loan application for the construction of a third dormitory at the northernmost point of the district at the intersection of North Washington Street at East Lane Drive. In May 1966, the trustees voted to name the new structure for Lake Alvin Greene, who as physical plant director from 1942 to 1963, had overseen much of the previous campus construction. Greene was leaving the college to become Columbia County judge. Greene Hall was completed in 1966. In 2024, Southern Arkansas University received a $1.454 million grant from the ANCRC, a portion of which was used for the restoration of Greene Hall.

For additional information:
“College Dormitories: Building Types Study.” Architectural Record, August 1965, pp. 113–136. Online at https://www.architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/archives/backissues/1965-08.pdf (accessed May 28, 2026).

“D. O. Talbot.” Shreveport Times, February 17, 1982, p. 10A.

“Greene-Talbot-Talley Halls Historic District.” National Register of Historic Places registration form. On file at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at https://www.arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-historic-preservation-program (accessed May 28, 2026).

“Lake Greene.” Daily Advertiser, October 16, 1966, p. 2.

Willis, James F. Southern Arkansas University: The Mulerider School’s Centennial History, 1909–2009. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2009.

Willis, James F., and Del Duke. Southern Arkansas University. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2017.