Arcadia Academy

Missouri · United States · Cemetery

A Methodist school from 1840, a Union hospital in the Civil War, then a girls' school run by nuns until 1971.

This building at Arcadia, Missouri was put up in 1840 as a Methodist high school. During the Civil War it served as a hospital for Union forces. In 1877 it was bought by Catholic sisters and became a girls' school, which ran until 1971.

It is now a bed and breakfast and an antique shop.

Photographs taken inside produce things the people who took them cannot account for.

The layering is what makes this place. Protestant schoolboys, then wounded soldiers, then a century of Catholic schoolgirls, then guests, in the same rooms.

The Arcadia Valley was fought over in 1864 at Fort Davidson, a few miles from here, where a heavily outnumbered Union garrison held out and then escaped overnight by blowing up their own powder magazine.

The building is open to guests and visitors.

FAQ

Where is Arcadia Academy located?

Arcadia Academy is in Missouri, United States.

Image: Skye Marthaler / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons