Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1842, and its leafy campus occupies the heart of downtown Delaware. The grounds are pleasant to walk even if you have no connection to the institution — a mix of nineteenth-century brick and limestone buildings set among mature trees along Sandusky and University Streets.
The oldest surviving building is Elliott Hall, completed in 1833 and now the most visible example of Greek Revival architecture in the city. Its white columns and symmetrical facade stand at the north end of campus in quiet contrast to the busier streets below. The Richard M. Ross Art Museum, housed in a handsome campus building on Sandusky Street, holds a small but worthwhile collection of American and European works and is free to enter.
The university produced a surprising number of notable alumni for its size — journalists, diplomats, scientists — a fact the campus takes quiet pride in. Branch Rickey, the baseball executive who signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, played here.