On Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1925, the University began a new life on a new campus.
The University’s campus was originally located downtown, on what is currently the Louisiana State Capitol. But the school was quickly running out of room in what was a converted military post.
Most of the land lying south of Baton Rouge consisted of plantations, according to Clarke Cadzow, local historian and Highland Coffees owner. Cadzow said the backstory of the land is also historically significant.
“Highland Road got its name because it was higher than the rest of the land,” he said. “So, when the Mississippi River flooded, Highland didn’t.”
After 2,000 acres of land came up for sale in 1918, Thomas Boyd and Thomas Atkinson began scheming, according to University Archivist Barry Cowan.
“They came up with an option,” Cowan said. “They would pay a small portion of the cost of the land, similar to a down payment. The state came up with the rest.”
The total cost of the land amounted to $82,000 at the time, Cowan said. Adjusted for inflation, the cost equals $1,079,490 today.
Buying it was just the beginning. Once the University purchased the land, it hired the Olmstead bothers to complete the design.
The Dairy Barn — now called the Reilly Theater — was the first building on campus, wrapping up construction in 1922.
As the University took shape, architects carefully considered each building’s purpose. In architect Theodore Link’s general plan, he proposed creating several quadrangles, each based on a theme.
Link created a North Quadrangle, centered around the fine arts. The quadrangle consisted of Peabody Hall, Foster Hall and Hill Memorial Library. The South Quadrangle was also known as the Engineering Quadrangle. Buildings in this quadrangle included Prescott, Stubbs and Audubon Halls, among others.
With buildings popping up around campus, a cross formed in the middle. Because Middleton Library wasn’t built until the 1950s, the University’s original buildings created a cruciform instead of many different squares.
Approximately 4,000 students inhabited the University’s campus shortly after enrollment began. All students under 21 were required to live on campus. Female students lived in the downtown Pentagon Barracks and were bussed to campus. A small neighborhood near campus also provided shelter for those affiliated with the University, according to Cadzow.
“Students or Faculty who worked at the University just walked to campus from the North Gates or State Street area,” he explained. “It really began to develop into its own little city. The downtown area was the only real part of Baton Rouge; LSU was really all by itself.”
Because the University land was previously a plantation, there were no stately oaks or broad magnolias populating the campus.
Not only did the landscape look different, but the demographics of the student population were also vastly different. This semester, the proportion of male to female students is nearly equal, according to the Office of Budget and Planning. In 1925, few females attended college, Cowan said.
“Just as an example, there were 32 men in the law school,” Cowan said. “There were only two women.”
