State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy

The state bought 438 acres here in 1853 for $3,190, picked for its central location, river access and reputation for healthfulness, and added 80 more acres in 1855. Construction began in 1856 on a three-story, 72-room building funded with $15,000. The school opened January 2, 1860, closed in April 1863, reopened in September 1865 under David F. Boyd, and lost its main building to fire on October 15, 1869. Cadets left for Baton Rouge on November 1. The 1877 merger with the Agricultural and Mechanical College fixed the name Louisiana State University.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum — 2.1 mi
  A National Guard museum in a replica WWII barracks at Camp Beauregard, built around the huge 1940-41 war games in Central Louisiana. Free.
• Forts Randolph and Buhlow State Historic Site — 2.4 mi
  Two Confederate earthen forts on the Red River at Pineville, built with enslaved labor and never attacked, beside the remains of Bailey's Dam.
• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 3.4 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
• Kent Plantation House — 4.5 mi
  Rapides Parish's oldest known standing building, a Creole house with a February tour and a 2023 memorial that put the enslaved first.

More markers nearby

• Jefferson Highway — 1.5 mi
• Central Louisiana State Hospital Cemetery — 1.9 mi
• Camp Beauregard - 761st Tank Battalion — 2.1 mi
• Deserting soldiers and the end of the war — 2.2 mi