LSU’s First Campus Was Inside What Is Now a Nationwide Forest

By ROBIN MILLER, The Advocate

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU didn’t at all times stand amongst stately oaks alongside the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.

For those who’re pondering that its unique campus was positioned on the grounds now occupied by the Louisiana State Capitol’s Capitol Park, assume once more. Capitol Park was LSU’s third campus. The college moved there in 1886, after a stint on the Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, additionally in Baton Rouge.

The college’s first campus truly opened in Pineville on Jan. 6, 1860 — although its official handle was Alexandria, which is definitely instantly throughout the Crimson River.

“The publish workplace was in Alexandria,” mentioned Paul Hoffman, professor emeritus of historical past at LSU. “That’s the place they obtained their mail, so the handle was Alexandria.”

That confusion of the campus being on the Pineville aspect of the Crimson River however having an Alexandria handle was the problem that prompted Gordon Brewer to ask the whereabouts of LSU’s unique campus. He now lives in San Antonio, Texas however grew up in Alexandria.

“I’ve learn historical past books that place it north of the Crimson River, however that will be in Pineville,” he mentioned. “However it was alleged to be in Alexandria, and I didn’t know the place it could be in Alexandria.”

The easiest way to get to the unique campus from Alexandria is to cross the O.Okay. Allen Bridge on U.S. 165. The highway then veers proper into U.S. 71, also referred to as the Shreveport Freeway.

Kisatchie Nationwide Forest’s headquarters is on the precise, and a Veterans Administration hospital to the left. There’s an indication subsequent to the Forest Service’s workplace marked “Outdated LSU Website Strolling Path.”

“Kisatchie owns and maintains the location,” Forest Service public affairs specialist Stacy Blomquist mentioned. “The Rapides Basis offered a grant for a strolling path.”

The positioning additionally options kiosks documenting the varsity’s historical past, together with “ghost partitions” made from iron fences marking the place the varsity’s 72-room, U-shaped constructing as soon as stood.

Within the midst of the previous campus are just a few bricked remnants, two belonging to the Louisiana State Seminary of Studying and Navy Academy’s nook towers. That’s what the varsity was referred to as, and its first superintendent was William Tecumseh Sherman from the time it opened to his resignation on April 1, 1862, to affix the Union Military.

Sure, Sherman — the Union basic who would order the burning of Atlanta throughout the Civil Conflict. Sarcastically, Sherman was a reluctant basic.

“He actually loved the tutorial setting,” Hoffman mentioned. “And he actually favored being at LSU.”

The one recognized image of the unique faculty is a rendering by Samuel Henry Lockett, a professor of arithmetic and engineering on the faculty. The college’s first president, David French Boyd, additionally taught there.

So, why was the primary faculty positioned within the piney woods of Rapides Parish?

Hoffman, who is also writer of “Louisiana Sate College and Agricultural and Mechanical Faculty, 1860-1919: A Historical past,” factors to George Mason Graham.

Graham was a Virginia-born lawyer, educator and proprietor of Tyrone Plantation in Rapides Parish. As the primary president of the varsity’s board of trustees, he’s generally referred to as the “father of LSU.”

“Graham was a Whig, and the Whig Social gathering was dedicated to inside enhancements that included training, in addition to roads and bridges and port improvement and issues of that kind,” Hoffman mentioned. “Rapides Parish was the nexus of the Whig Social gathering, and the situation was best when it comes to being centrally positioned.”

On the outbreak of the Civil Conflict, the varsity closed however reopened in 1862. The college’s solely constructing burned in 1869. The suspected trigger was arson.

So, the varsity was moved to Baton Rouge. Alongside the best way, it bought a brand new title.

“Seminary was the final time period for some form of academic facility. We would say it’s type of equal to a highschool or junior school,” Hoffman mentioned. “Ultimately, in 1870, after the primary class had graduated within the spring of 1869, Sherman wrote to David Boyd that it was time to alter the title. He mentioned LSU needs to be referred to as a college.”

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