Berwick Academy (Maine)
Berwick Academy File:Berwick Logo.jpg | |
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Location | |
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, Maine
country = United States | |
Coordinates | 43°13′50″N 70°48′15″W / 43.23056°N 70.80417°W |
Information | |
Type | Private, Day |
Motto | Latin: Dei Timor Initium Sapiente |
Religious affiliation(s) | Unaffiliated |
Established | 1791 |
Head of School | Greg Schneider |
Enrollment | 575 |
Campus | Rural, 81 acres (33 ha), 11 Buildings |
Color(s) | Blue and White |
Athletics conference | Eastern Independent League |
Mascot | Bulldog |
Website | www.berwickacademy.org |
Berwick Academy | |
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Location | Academy St., South Berwick, Maine |
Area | 81 acres (33 ha) |
Built | 1791 |
Architectural style | Richardsonian Romanesque, Victorian, Federal, Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 78000336[1] |
Added to NRHP | March 29, 1978 |
Berwick Academy is a college preparatory school located in South Berwick, Maine. 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 a 81-acre (33 ha), 11-building campus on a hill overlooking the Salmon Falls River, near the border between Maine and New Hampshire. Approximately 575 students in grades K through 12 attend the coeducational day school, primarily from the surrounding regions of southern Maine, southeastern New Hampshire and northeastern Massachusetts.
History
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The school was founded in 1791 when citizens of Berwick, York, and Wells (then villages in the Maine Territory of Massachusetts) raised $500 to teach languages, liberal arts and sciences to "the youth in this part of the country." Chartered by Massachusetts Governor John Hancock later that year and armed with a classical educational mission, the school opened in a small hip-roofed Georgian building on land donated by Judge Benjamin Chadbournes. Today this building, dubbed the "1791 House," is home to the Academy's admissions office.
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 public school for the town. As the town grew and industrialized, the school's dual role necessitated campus expansion. A second Academy building (1830) was destroyed by fire in 1851; its successor, designed by architect Richard Upjohn, was itself superseded by the William Hayes Fogg Memorial Building. Built in 1894 by George Albert Clough in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted, and built complete with electricity and state-of-the-art science labs, it remains the main Academy building today.
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 boarding students and the increasing suburbanization of the region dictated 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 the surrounding homes were sold or converted to other uses. Enrollment, physical plant and endowment have steadily increased to the present day. 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 – although it predates, sometimes by more than a century, most schools of either movement.
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Organization
The Academy is governed by a Board of Trustees, with a Head of School in charge of fundraising and the day-to-day operation of the Academy. The three subsidiary schools are headed by Division Directors.
Academics
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The Academy is divided into three schools: the Lower School (grades K–4), the Middle School (grades 5–8) and the Upper School (grades 9–12). 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 and technology. In keeping with the school's classical mission subjects of study are diverse and include Liberal Arts, Sciences, Fine Arts, Music and Mathematics.
College placement
Berwick Academy has traditionally prepared students for Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Colby and Bates colleges. While these relationships have continued, graduates now matriculate at a variety of highly selective colleges in the United States, including the Ivy League, the Little Ivies and the Ancient Universities.
Athletics
Participation in sports is generally required for grade advancement. Middle School students are required to play three sports during their course of study, and participation in interscholastic athletics is required of Upper School students. (Waivers are given to Upper School students for other extracurricular activities, such as drama, dance, robotics, or independent research projects through the "Innovation Center".) Lower school students participate in intramural sports.
Berwick currently fields teams in Golf, Soccer, Field Hockey, Cross Country, Hockey, Basketball, swimming, Skiing, Lacrosse, Softball, Tennis, and Baseball. Teams compete in the Eastern Independent League (EIL) and New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) are divided by gender and skill level. .
In September 2010, a new synthetic turf soccer and lacrosse field was installed on the campus.
Notable alumni
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Sam_Fuld_on_September_4%2C_2009.jpg/140px-Sam_Fuld_on_September_4%2C_2009.jpg)
- John Holmes Burleigh (1822–77), U.S. Congressman from Maine.
- John Noble Goodwin (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 (1849–1909), novelist, author of A Country Doctor (1884), The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).
- Gladys Hasty Carroll (1904–99), novelist, author of As The Earth Turns (1933) and Dunnybrook (1943).
- Casey Coleman (1951–2006), radio broadcaster and play-by-by announcer for the Cleveland Indians.
- Mike Eruzione (b. 1954), former National Hockey League player and captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team.
- Sam Fuld (b. 1981), Major League Baseball player for the Tampa Bay Rays.
References
- Federal architecture in Maine
- Renaissance Revival architecture in Maine
- School buildings completed in 1791
- York County, Maine
- Schools in York County, Maine
- Educational institutions established in the 1790s
- 1791 establishments in the United States
- Schools 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