Louisiana Hungarian Settlement Museum To Hold Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

ALBANY, LA — A 111-year-old school in Albany, Louisiana will open Wednesday as the Hungarian Settlement Museum.

A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., a flyer from the Hungarian Settlement Historical Society said.

The school was built in Springfield in 1906 and moved to Albany in 1927. It remained a school until 1944, when it was converted into a nursing home. The nursing home closed in 1976 and the building was ignored until 2000, when the Hungarian Settlement Historical Society decided to turn it into a museum.

The historical society restored the building and is leasing it from the Livingston Parish School Board. (For more information on the museum opening and other Baton Rouge-area stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The community was established in 1896, when its three founders checked an advertisement in a Hungarian-language newspaper for 20-acre plots being sold by a lumber company, the museum website said.

Its population grew from 11 families in 1900 to about 200 families by 1920.

The museum is about 35 miles east of Baton Rouge and 50 miles northwest of New Orleans.

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