Academy Park

Minden's first school lived on public money for only a few years. Charles Veeder founded Minden Academy in 1838 with a $1,500 grant from the legislature, and its second principal, Henry Spofford, later sat on the Louisiana Supreme Court. The 1845 constitution barred public funds for private schools. In 1850 the school split into a male academy and a female college, and the male campus was paid for by W. Abner Drake, Drury Murrell and J. and T. Gibbs. The 1898 constitution required public schools, and the two were joined as Minden Public School.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Germantown Colony Museum — 6.3 mi
  Two hewn-log buildings from an 1836 religious commune near Minden, the earliest of its kind in Louisiana, with a museum added in 1975.
• Lake Bistineau State Park — 14 mi
  A 903-acre state park on a lake the Great Raft made, opened in 1946 with a separate section for Black visitors from 1956, and now known for cypress water and a lake that is drawn down.
• R. W. Norton Art Gallery — 29 mi
  A free art museum and 40 acres of azalea gardens in Shreveport, founded in 1946 on Rodessa oil money, with Remington and Russell, an Audubon folio and no photography allowed.

More markers nearby

• Germantown Colony — 0.2 mi
• Germantown Colony And Museum — 6.3 mi
• Bellevue Cemetery — 14 mi
• Ma Canfield's Cafe — 14 mi