The History of the Gillis W. Long Center The site where the Gillis W. Long Center is located was once the home of a sugar cane plantation called Indian Camp, named for General Camp, a War of 1812 Veteran who first owned this land. The centerpiece of the plantation was the main house, built in the 1850’s by the same architect who built the historical Nottoway Plantation in White Castle, Henry Howard. The mansion was called “Woodlawn.”   This magnificent work is the first sight you see when entering the main gates of The Gillis W. Long Center. Abandoned and in disarray, the property was sold to the State of Louisiana in 1894, just before the first patients were sent from New Orleans.  For over 100 years now, this site has served as a treatment center for these patients, tended by the Daughters of Charity and eventually by doctors and clinicians. Their disease, now known as Hansen’s disease, was cured in the 1940’s by Dr. Guy   Faget, here at what we fondly call "Carville."                               In 1999, faced with a dwindling patient population, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services turned the property back over to the state in legislation that has been called “The Baker Bill,” named for Congressman Richard Baker, author of the Bill and staunch supporter of our facility and its programs. The State of Louisiana Military Department gained oversight of the property in April of 1999, beginning a new era for Carville. The patients who wished to remain to receive medical care and housing, and they are still very much a large part and the heart of this facility. In April of 1999, the Youth Challenge Program opened their doors here at Gillis Long, making Louisiana the first state with more than one National Guard Challenge program. Later on that year, the Job Challenge Program, the only program of its type in the nation, accepted its first class of Youth Challenge graduates. The Gillis W. Long Center also has become the home of the National Guard’s 62nd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, the 415th Military Intelligence Battalion, the 239th Military Police Company, and the A/111th Medical Company. In the summer of 2002, seeking a way to educate emergency personnel after 9/11, the Southern Anti-Terrorism Training Academy opened here and began training police officers and first responders in anti-terror education and tactics. LSU also moved its Law Enforcement Training Program here to our facility in 2002. In late 2003, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals began relocating some of their Bio-terrorism Unit staff here, and they have plans to remodel Building 15 into a state of the art bio-terrorism training facility.  Recently, Gillis W. Long also became home to the newest chapter of The First Tee Program, The First Tee of Carville. So much history and work lives here at the Gillis W. Long Center. In 1994, upon the centennial celebration, it was remarked, “Will Carville have a second century of glory?” You may ask that to the hundreds of youth who have passed through these gates with changed life paths and goals, or ask the men and women who train here every day in hopes to keep our homeland safe. We think the answer would be a resounding, “Yes!”