Designed by a San Francisco firm, the two-and-one-half-story brick structure is adapted from several styles popular at the time and used for dormitories on eastern campuses. The whimsical design includes a long gable roof with gable wings crossing both ends, brick chimneys, Flemish gables along the parapet, and a central cupola in the Colonial Revival style. Rusticated granite accent blocks surrounding the entrance and rounded arches supporting the porch hint at the Neo-Romanesque. In the 1980s Lincoln Hall, originally a dormitory, became the center of the university honors program, providing rooms for participating students and space for related administrative offices.