Joseph Smith Academy

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The Joseph Smith Academy ("JSA") was an educational complex in Nauvoo, Illinois, less than 1000 feet from the Nauvoo Temple. Until recently, the Academy was home to a BYU distance study program focusing on church history. For this reason, the Academy is sometimes referred to as the BYU Nauvoo Center.

The Academy no longer is functioning and the building was slated for destruction in September 2007. ^[1]

The dormitories at JSA provide housing for local missionaries, visiting youth groups and conferences, CES students on distance learning expedition, and other interests.

The building in which the JSA is housed was purchased from Catholic nuns who had used the facilities to run a girl's boarding school. The building has a unique architecture and interior design, with curving hallways, five-foot tall lampshades, "bubblepaper" wallpaper and many other curious traits.

The first group of BYU students to live in the JSA came in January 2000, although BYU had sent students to live in the Nauvoo area previously. Portions of Peave, Love & Gingerbread, a book about the first semester students lived in the JSA, circulated around the internet for a while but interest was fleeting.

[edit] References

^ Hancock County Journal-Pilot "Items too numerous to mention; Variety drew large crowd to Joseph Smith Academy sale" by Joy Swearingen and Doug Endres http://www.journalpilot.com/articles/2007/08/29/news/news4.txt