Set back behind a lawn and shaded with tall trees is the large three-story brick building that housed the Marion Junior College, which replaced an earlier structure housing the Marion Female College founded by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Southwestern Virginia in 1873. The college closed in 1967. Classrooms, administrative offices, and boarding rooms were all contained in the single building, a unitary design typical for women's colleges. The college building has a two-story Ionic portico and is topped by a polygonal cupola. Projecting end pavilions with decorative brick paneling and corner Ionic pilasters combine with the flat-topped portico to add interest to the sixteen-bay facade.