Editing Mount Lebanon, Louisiana (section)

==History==
{{unsourced|section|date=April 2025}}
Mount Lebanon was probably the first permanent settlement in what is now [[Bienville Parish, Louisiana|Bienville Parish]]. Its pioneers were [[Baptists]] from [[South Carolina]] who quickly established a church and school. The school became [[Mount Lebanon University]] in 1853, but closed during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] to serve as a high school and a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] hospital. After the war the school reopened. After years of struggling, it was consolidated in 1906 through the [[Louisiana Baptist Convention]] into [[Louisiana College]] in [[Pineville, Louisiana|Pineville]] in [[Rapides Parish, Louisiana|Rapides Parish]] in [[central Louisiana]].

The [[Mount Lebanon Baptist Church]] was organized in 1837, and the Louisiana Baptist Convention was established there in 1848. One of the Baptist organizers in Mount Lebanon was pastor [[George Washington Baines]], maternal great-grandfather of future [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. The church building is still in use. The sanctuary is separated down the middle; men would sit on one side of the divide, women on the other. There is a balcony where the slaves were seated.

There are eight houses in the town that are on the [[National Register of Historic Places]], including a building once used as a stagecoach stop and hotel.  That was established by Emily Antoinette Bryan Smith around 1848 and is still owned by her direct descendants.

After the railroad was built through [[Gibsland, Louisiana|Gibsland]], {{convert|3|mi|0}} north, Mount Lebanon began to decline in population and economic opportunity. The post office was decommissioned in the 1950s.