LaGrange College (of Alabama?!)

LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia, is well enough known ~ but LaGrange College of Alabama? That came as a surprise to me. I found it in search, but it also appears that I have an old bi-fold brochure that I picked up at some rest stop. It's near Cullman, Alabama, and is really pretty old, which surprises me in more ways than one. In the first place, I'd heard of an old Civil War era college in Cullman, but I didn't think it was called LaGrange. So... is this a different one altogether? It does appear that it is defunct, or at least relevant in a historical sense only.

Note: The following is from an old brochure and might be obsolete. As things go these days, the whole place might be obsolete or gone. If so, this post shall simply serve as a reminder that this place once existed.

Here's the info, such as it is: 

Established 1830. Has a Civil War cemetery. Once served as a holy ground to the Chickasaw Nation. Very old markers, including an Abraham Ricks monument (crafted by an Italian sculpture in 1852, then costing $5,000). Replica of a pioneer village (log cabin, outbuildings, country store, barn, smokehouse, two-room dogtrot cabin/museum).


Annual Events:
May: Recall LaGrange. Weekend after Mother's Day.*
September: LaGrange Fall Festival.
November: Christmas in the Country. Weekend after Thanksgiving.


 LaGrange College Site Park, Pioneer Village and Antebellum Cemetery

It was once called the "West Point of the South." (And then came the Civil War). The enrollment read like a Who's Who, it says. When the War came, people deserted the towns in droves, to join up. "On April 28, 1863, Colonel Florence M. Cornyn and his 'Destroying Angels' swept through the valley and in a blink of an eye, LaGrange, the college and its very life was gone."

 Northwest Alabama: These facilities are located four miles south of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in Leighton, west of Interstate 65 on Hwy. 72/20 (an alternate or loop). The map shows a location on Alabama Highway 72, at the intersection of Hwy. 157. It is just east of Florence Muscle Shoals (hmmm, shouldn't that be "mussel"? Hey, I'm just readin' the brochure, and it is Alabama, after all). It is just west of Decatur and northwest of Cullman, Alabama. It is northeast of Tuscaloosa, off of Hwy. 43. Selected directions: 140 miles southwest of Chattanooga, 220 miles northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, and 120 miles northwest of Birmingham, Alabama.


Restoration and preservation: memberships, donations.


LaGrange Living Historical Association, P.O. Box 306, Leighton, AL 35646


Phone: 205-446-9324 (or) 1-800-344-0783

Brochure says open daily year round. Welcome Center/Museum open Sundays 1-4 pm or by appointment.

*Recall LaGrange event, Fri., Sat., Sun. following Mother's Day, includes: Pioneer Village, Civil War Living History Daily Camp Life, First Impressions Cemetery Tour, Camp church service, 1860s period music, arts and crafts, ghost stories, blacksmith shop, period craft demonstrations, observatory for star gazers, antique engines and tractor display.