In 1812 Louis and Rebecca Lefleur, a couple of French and French-Choctaw Indian descent, established a trading post on the Natchez Trace, which became known as the Frenchman’s Camp, or simply French Camp. In 1854, two decades after the cession of local Choctaw lands to the federal government, French Camp became an incorporated community. The present town is a single row of modest buildings north of the academy along MS 413.
In 1885, the Presbyterian Church established the Central Mississippi Institute here as a school for girls. Later that year, they opened the French Camp Academy for boys, and in 1915 the two were combined as the French Camp Academy, which today is a Christian boarding school. Located on academy land is the Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium, the largest collection of telescopes in Mississippi, which is housed in both permanent structures and tents and is open for monthly public programs and by appointment. The most notable building on the neatly maintained campus is Alexander-Strange Hall (1909; pictured above), which today houses the offices of the president. A T-shaped structure impressively strung out on a hilltop site, its two-story central-pedimented block with Ionic columns is flanked by one-story wings.