Centenary College of Louisiana at Jackson
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Centenary College
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The West Wing Dormitory, as seen today
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| Location | College St., Jackson, Louisiana |
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| Area | 40 acres (16 ha) |
| Built | 1837 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 79001062 |
| Added to NRHP | April 19, 1979 |
The original campus of Centenary College of Louisiana is located in Jackson, Louisiana. It is operated and preserved as a museum by the Louisiana Office of State Parks as the Centenary State Historic Site, offering educational interpretive programs and guided tours.
In 1825, the Louisiana Legislature chartered four public colleges. One of these was the College of Louisiana at Jackson, a small town on the border of East and West Feliciana Parishes. Despite the tireless efforts of the trustees to maintain a college of the finest repute, in its 20-year history, the college only produced 24 graduates. Its main contributions to the future of the campus were the East and West Wing dormitories, two impressive brick barracks-style structures built between 1832 and 1837.
Several institutions of higher learning sprouted in and around Jackson in the autumn of 1845, somewhat as a result of Centenary College of Louisiana's opening at that time. (Centenary College, a Methodist church-affiliated institution, was founded in Mississippi in 1839; then it relocated to Louisiana.)
The Episcopal women's academy, the Southern Institute for Young Ladies, opened the year before, under the direction of Rev. William B. Lacey—who had been a president of the College of Louisiana. The school continued in operation until 1860. The Feliciana Female Collegiate Institute opened in 1847, led by the Methodist Episcopal Rev. Benjamin Jones and his wife. It also continued until the outbreak of the American Civil War.
The greatest event of the social calendar in antebellum Jackson was Centenary's annual commencement. The small town was pushed to its limits at that time, as dignitaries from across the state and region crowded its hotels and private homes for the occasion. More people than usual were in attendance for the 1856 commencement, as it included the ceremony of placing the cornerstone for the college's new Centre Building.
Included in this building were all offices, classrooms, laboratories, debate halls, etc. The building also featured a 3,000-volume library, and an auditorium which seated between two and three thousand. When completed, the structure dwarfed the dormitories upon either side (pictured).
The completion of the Centre Building marked the high-water mark of Centenary's tenure in Jackson. However, it was fated to be short-lived. Less than three years after the building was completed, the college closed, the vast majority of its students having joined the Confederate Army. The last entry in the minutes of the Board of Trustees in 1861 reads "Students have all gone to War—College suspended, and God Help the Right!"
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