Louisiana State Univ 01/31/05

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LOUISIANA- LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, LA- 1/31/05

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Louisiana State University
at Baton Rouge

Historical Information about Louisiana State University

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College began as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy. Opening its doors for the first session on January 2, 1860 at Pineville, LA. William Tecumseh Sherman was the first president. He resigned before the start of the second session to take a command in the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War. The student body joined the Confederate Forces. The Seminary was closed during the war and was reopened in 1865 under the leadership of David French Boyd, a member of the original five-man faculty.

A four year period of postwar hardships was climaxed in 1869 by a fire which destroyed the seminary building. Class work was resumed two weeks later in a building housing the State School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge. In 1870 the Seminary was designated as the Louisiana State university and seven years later the University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College, which had previously had been located in New Orleans were merged. In 1886 the University was moved to the Pentagon Barracks Historic Military Post situated on the grounds of the present State Capitol.

Steady growth of its student body and expansion of its research and extension services led to the building of this "Greater University" envisioned by President Thomas Duckett Boyd and made a reality by Governor John M Parker during whose administration construction of this campus was begun in 1922. The site was formally dedicated on April 30, 1926. The transition from the old campus to the present one was completed in 1932.

LAND GRANT COLLEGE
Congress through the Morrill Act of 1802 donated 210,000 acres of public land to Louisiana to provide a college "for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts." The land and the underlying conditions were accepted by the state in 1869. The General Assembly established the Louisiana State Agricultural and Mechanical College (at New Orleans) in 1874 and named it recipient of the Morrill Land Grant. The A&M College and LSU were "United" in 1877 to become the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, with the combined school continuing to serve as Louisiana's Land Grant College.

This stone came from the foundation of the first building erected for the University, then called The Louisiana State Seminary of Learning located near Alexandria, LA. This building was constructed in 1859 and was occupied by the Seminary from January 2, 1860 to October 15, 1869 when it was destroyed by fire.

Stately Trees on Campus of Louisiana State University