Gorham Academy was a preparatory school for boys and girls in

Gorham, Maine Gorham is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 18,336 at the 2020 United States Census. In addition to its urban village center known as Gorham Village or simply "the Village," the town encompasses a number of ...

Origins

In 1802, Hon. Stephen Longfellow presented a petition in favor of an academy in Gorham to the Massachusetts State Legislature. Governor

Caleb Strong Caleb Strong (January 9, 1745 – November 7, 1819) was an American lawyer, politician, and Founding Father who served as the sixth and tenth governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. He assisted in draf ...

approved an act incorporating the Academy on March 5, 1803. The academy was to be for education of both sexes. The first meeting of the Board of Trustees was on June 1 of the same year, and on the 23rd of June, the legislature granted a half-township of land to the academy. In September 1806, work on the Federal style Academy Building, designed by Samuel Elder, was completed. Reuben Nason was inaugurated as the first preceptor, and 45 boys were admitted. 15 girls were admitted in the following year, and the total number of students was raised to 75.

Closing

The academy was incorporated into the Gorham Normal School in the late 1870s, and the Academy Building is now on the campus of the

University of Southern Maine The University of Southern Maine (USM) is a public university with campuses in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston in the U.S. state of Maine. It is the southernmost of the University of Maine System. It was founded as two separate state universi ...

. In 1973, it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

for its fine Federal period architecture and its importance in local education.

List of Preceptors

*Reuben Nason, 1806-1810 *Dr. Charles Coffin, 1810-1811 *Asa Reddington, Jr., 1811-? *William White, ?-1815 *Reuben Nason, 1815-1834 *John V. Beane, 1834-? *Rev. Amos Brown, ?-1847 *Edward P. Weston, 1847-1860 *Josiah B. Webb, 1861-?

References

Educational institutions established in 1803 Education in Cumberland County, Maine University of Southern Maine Defunct schools in Maine {{authority control