Center Building of East Louisiana State Hospital - Jackson, LA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Tough location to find. Best advise is to park at the Old Jackson Cemetery, and walk up the old main entrance road right up to this building located at the top of a small bluff. The building appeared to be in good condition. Internet research has turned up the building may not be in good condition. May be in the process of a possible restoration. Very imposing but beautiful surroundings. The entire Jackson area is rich in history and a peaceful area to visit.

From the State of Louisiana National Register application page, located , a brief description of this building states:

The Center Building of East Louisiana State Hospital is an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture in Louisiana. This is primarily because it has the only three-story Greek Revival portico in the state. Beyond this, the hospital exemplifies a quintessential tendency of the American Greek Revival movement, i.e. its addiction to the Greek temple form. This form was so admired that it was used for buildings of all types, including schools, churches, homes, etc. This national love of the Greek temple was most clearly seen in the design of institutional buildings. This was because institutional buildings often had size requirements which made them difficult to adapt to the temple form. As a result, great effort was often expended to fit three or more stories into a temple structure while retaining the temple-like appearance. The Center Building of East Louisiana State Hospital is an excellent example of this, because it is a well-proportioned temple form, with four and one half stories "shoe-horned" into it. It shows the temple form stretched to its limits, and it shows the almost universal application of the temple form even to building types to which it was not entirely suited. The Center Building of East Louisiana State Hospital is also of social/ humanitarian significance as the site of the state's first major permanent facility for the care of the mentally ill. This building was the beginning of the greatly expanded, present-day East Louisiana State Hospital.

Street address: State Highway 10, 2 miles east of Jackson Jackson, LA USA 70748 County / Borough / Parish: East Feliciana Year listed: 1980 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1850-1874, 1825-1849 Historic function: Health Care - Hospital Current function: Health Care - Hospital Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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