Berwick Academy is a

college preparatory school A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...

located in

South Berwick, Maine South Berwick is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,467 at the 2020 census. South Berwick is home to Berwick Academy, a private, co-educational university-preparatory day school founded in 1791. The town was s ...

. Founded in 1791, it is the oldest educational institution in Maine and one of the oldest private schools in North America. The school sits on an 80-acre, 11-building campus on a hill overlooking the town, near the border between

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. Approximately 565 students in grades Pre-K through 12 (and post-grad) attend this coeducational day and boarding school. The majority of students commute to Berwick from approximately 60 communities in the surrounding regions of southern

, southeastern

and northeastern

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. There are also several international residential students.

History

Burleigh-Davidson Building, Berwick Academy, South Berwick, Maine

Berwick Academy was founded in 1791 when citizens of Berwick,

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, and

Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

(then villages in the

District of Maine The District of Maine was the governmental designation for what is now the U.S. state of Maine from October 25, 1780 to March 15, 1820, when it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state. The district was a part of the Commonwealth of Massachuse ...

within the recently founded state of

) raised $500 to teach languages,

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

and sciences to "the youth in this part of the country." Chartered by Massachusetts Governor

John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the ...

later that year and armed with a classical educational mission, the school opened in a small hip-roofed

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

building on land donated by Judge Benjamin Chadbournes. Today known as ''The 1791 House'', the building was relocated to the current campus in 1971 and is the oldest school structure in the United States still utilized today. From its founding the school contracted with the town of South Berwick to educate local students, serving both as a private college preparatory school and the de facto local public. As the town grew and industrialized, the school's dual role necessitated campus expansion. A new Academy building was built in 1830, and destroyed by fire in 1851. Its successor, designed by architect

Richard Upjohn Richard Upjohn (22 January 1802 – 16 August 1878) was a British-born American architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to su ...

, was superseded by the William Hayes Fogg Memorial Building in 1894. Designed by

George Albert Clough George Albert Clough (May 27, 1843 – December 30, 1910) was an architect working in Boston in the late 19th-century. He designed the Suffolk County Courthouse in Pemberton Square, and numerous other buildings in the city and around New Engl ...

in the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

style, landscaped by

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

, and built complete with electricity and state-of-the-art science labs, it remains a focal point of the modern campus, housing the majority of Upper School history, English, and foreign language classrooms. In 1955, the contract with South Berwick terminated and the school reverted to a purely private "prep school," featuring boarding for boys, a day department for girls, and college preparation on a classical model for both. Considerable physical expansion during this period included the acquisitions of surrounding homes for dormitories and of adjacent lands for playing fields. In the 1970s, the burdensome cost of housing students and the increasing suburbanization of northern New England resulted in a further transformation from boarding academy to country day school. A Middle School was founded in 1971 and a Lower School in 1977; boarding was discontinued in 1976 and the dormitory-homes sold or converted to educational uses. In the subsequent decades the school's enrollment, endowment, and physical plant have steadily increased, with the addition of Jackson Library, the Jeppesen Science and Math center, the Baldwin Arts Center, and a sports complex, among other facilities. The school has come to occupy a unique academic position in between the 18th century American college preparatory school and the 19th Century progressive country day school. In 2017 it was announced that the school would begin a small residential program, beginning in the 2018-2019 school year.

Administration

Berwick is governed by a 23-member Board of Trustees, with a Head of School in charge of day-to-day operation and fundraising. The three subsidiary schools are headed by Division Directors. The Upper School has advisors, class advisors, Grade Deans and an Assistant Director, and the Middle School a Dean of Students.

Campus

Berwick Academy is situated on an 80 acre campus in the town of

, high above the

Salmon Falls River The Salmon Falls River is a tributary of the Piscataqua River in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire. It rises at Great East Lake, Newichawannock Canal, and Horn Pond and flows south-southeast for approximately , forming the border betwee ...

. The campus consists of eleven major buildings, including the Fogg Memorial Building (home of the Upper School), Burleigh-Davidson Building (home of admissions and administration), the 1791 Building (finance and facilities), the Jackson Library, Jeppersen Science Center.

Gallery

1791_Building,_Berwick_Academy,_South_Berwick,_Maine.jpg, The 1791 House is the original home of the school. Today is houses finance and facilities. Jeppesen_Science_Center,_Berwick_Academy,_South_Berwick,_Maine.jpg, Jeppesen Science Center Jackson_Library_(sun),_Berwick_Academy,_South_Berwick,_Maine.jpg, Jackson Library Fogg_Memorial_Building_landscape,_Berwick_Academy,_South_Berwick,_Maine.jpg, The Fogg Memorial Building, home to Upper School, was landscaped by

Academics

The Berwick curriculum balances tradition with innovation and prepares students for college while ensuring they become ethical citizens that possess "virtue and useful knowledge." In keeping with the school's classical mission subjects of study are diverse and include

Liberal Arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

, Sciences,

Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

, Music and

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. Berwick has a student-teacher ratio of 8:1 and an average class size of 14 students. The Academy is divided into three schools: the Lower School (grades PreK–4), the Middle School (grades 5–8) and the Upper School (grades 9–PG). The academic calendar is divided into trimesters; students typically take year-long classes, with some trimester-length elective classes in the Upper School. Students follow a rigorous academic program combining

classical education Classical education may refer to: *''Modern'', educational practices and educational movements: **An education in the Classics, especially in Ancient Greek and Latin **Classical education movement, based on the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) an ...

and technology.

College placement

Berwick Academy has traditionally prepared students for Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Colby and

Bates Bates may refer to: Places * Bates, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Bates, Illinois. an unincorporated community in Sangamon County * Bates, Michigan, a community in Grand Traverse County * Bates, New York, a hamlet in the town of Ell ...

colleges. While these relationships have continued, graduates now matriculate at a wide variety of highly selective colleges in the United States and abroad, including other

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

and

Little Ivies The Little Ivies are an unofficial group of small, academically competitive private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States. The term Little Ivy derives from these schools' small student bodies, standards of academic excellence, a ...

, and the

Ancient Universities The ancient universities are British and Irish medieval universities and early modern universities founded before the year 1600. Four of these are located in Scotland, two in England, and one in Ireland. The ancient universities in Britain and I ...

of Great Britain.

Athletics

Participation in sports is generally required for grade advancement. Middle School students are required to play three sports (an activity like "maker space" will also satisfy this requirement) during their course of study (one for each trimester), and participation in interscholastic athletics is required of Upper School students for at least one trimester per year. Waivers are given to Upper School students participating in a sport not offered at the school. Other after-school extracurricular activities, such as drama, dance, robotics, or independent research projects through the "Innovation Center", are offered as well. Lower school students participate in intramural sports. Berwick currently fields teams in golf, soccer, field hockey, cross country,

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

, basketball, swimming, lacrosse, softball, tennis, baseball, and rowing. Teams compete in the

Eastern Independent League The Eastern Independent League (EIL) is composed of eleven New England preparatory schools that compete athletically and academically. The EIL's eleven members compete in a number of sports in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference (N ...

(EIL) and

New England Preparatory School Athletic Council The New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) is an organization that serves as the governing body for sports in preparatory schools and leagues in New England. The organization has 169 full member schools as well as 24 associate ...

(NEPSAC) are divided by gender and skill level.

Awards and recognition

* In 2011, a student was selected as a winner of the Arts Olympiad to represent the state of Maine. A few other students were also invited to participate in the workshops at the World Children's Festival. * In 2011 a team of seventh and eighth grade students won first place in the international Odyssey of the Mind competition, and bested teams from all over the globe. * In 2013 Berwick Academy's innovation center placed third in the Follett Challenge and the school's library won $30,000 in prize money. * In 2017, a Berwick Academy seventh grade student was Maine's representative at the National Geographic geography bee.

Notable alumni and faculty

Ichabod Goodwin Ichabod Goodwin (October 8, 1794July 4, 1882) was the 27th governor of New Hampshire from 1859 to 1861. Life and career Goodwin was born in 1794 in the community of Berwick, Massachusetts (which is today known as North Berwick, Maine). He becam ...

(1794–1882), 27th Governor of New Hampshire * Joseph McKean (academic) (1776–1818), Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University, founder of

Porcellian Club The Porcellian Club is an all-male final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the P.C. The year of founding is usually given as 1791, when a group began meeting under the name "the Argonauts",, p. 171: source for 1791 origins ...

. Served as Berwick's second headmaster. * John Holmes Burleigh (1822–77), U.S. Congressman from Maine, namesake of the Burleigh-Davidson Building, his former home *

John Noble Goodwin John Noble Goodwin (October 18, 1824 – April 29, 1887) was a United States attorney and politician who served as the first Governor of Arizona Territory. He was also a Congressman from Maine and served as Arizona Territory's delegate to the ...

(1824–87) U.S. Congressman from Maine, Congressional Delegate from Arizona Territory, Chief Justice of Arizona Territory, and the first governor of Arizona *

Sarah Orne Jewett Theodora Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near the southern coast of Maine. Jewett is recognized as an important ...

(1849–1909), novelist, author of ''A Country Doctor'' (1884), ''The Country of the Pointed Firs'' (1896) *

Guy Tripp Guy Eastman Tripp (April 22, 1865 – June 14, 1927) was an American business executive and an officer in the United States Army. A longtime manager and executive for several companies, he served as Chairman of the Westinghouse Electric Corporat ...

(1865-1927), business executive and U.S. Army brigadier general * Louis B. Costello (1876–1959), newspaper publisher *

Gladys Hasty Carroll Gladys Hasty Carroll (June 26, 1904 – April 1, 1999) was an American novelist active from the late 1920s into the 1980s. In her fiction and non-fiction, Carroll wrote about what she knew and people that she loved, especially those in the Southe ...

(1904–99), novelist, author of ''As The Earth Turns'' (1933) and ''Dunnybrook'' (1943) *

Casey Coleman Kenneth R. "Casey" Coleman Jr. (March 24, 1951 – November 27, 2006) was a sportscaster and radio personality in the Cleveland area for nearly 30 years. Early life Coleman was born in Cleveland in 1951 to legendary play-by-play announcer K ...

(1951–2006), radio broadcaster and play-by-by announcer for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

Mike Eruzione Michael Anthony "Rizz, Rizzo" Eruzione (, , born October 25, 1954) is an American former ice hockey player. He is best known as the captain of the 1980 Winter Olympics United States national team that defeated the Soviet Union in the famous "Mir ...

(b. 1954), former National Hockey League player and captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team *

Richard Corman (photographer) Richard Corman (born 1954)Richard Corman“Photographer Richard Corman: I Shot Madonna,”'' Out'', April 2011. is an American photographer, best known for his work as a portrait photographer. His subjects include musicians, actors, athletes, ar ...

(b. 1954), portrait photographer. *

Sam Fuld Samuel Babson Fuld (born November 20, 1981) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and the current general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. He played eight seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Tampa B ...

(b. 1981), Major League Baseball player for the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

and General Manager for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

, attended in 8th grade

References

External links

* Th
Berwick Academy
website {{authority control Federal architecture in Maine Renaissance Revival architecture in Maine School buildings completed in 1791 Schools in York County, Maine Educational institutions established in 1791 1791 establishments in Maine School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Private high schools in Maine Preparatory schools in Maine Private elementary schools in Maine Private middle schools in Maine South Berwick, Maine Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine National Register of Historic Places in York County, Maine Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Maine