Berwick Academy - South Berwick, Maine - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

"Berwick Academy is the oldest educational institution in Maine, predating the state itself by almost 30 years. In 1791, the 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 deplorable youth in this part of the country." Later that year Massachusetts Governor John Hancock signed a charter creating an academy for the purpose of "promoting true piety and virtue and useful knowledge among the rising generation."

At this time the Academy consisted of a small hip-roofed Georgian house on land donated by Judge Benjamin Chadbournes. Known simply as "the 1791 House", today it is home to the Academy's admissions office.

Before and after Maine achieved statehood, the Academy served a dual role as college preparatory school and regional comprehensive high school. As the surrounding region grew, expansion was necessary to accomplish this dual purpose. In 1894 the William Hayes Fogg Memorial Building, a Romanesque Revival edifice built by architect George A. Clough, was completed and housed both the Academy and the South Berwick Public Library. Complete with electricity and state-of-the-art science labs, and landscaped by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, it became the primary Academy building, as it remains today.

Up until the 1950s, the town of South Berwick contracted with the school to educate local students. By 1955, Berwick reverted to a completely private status with an exclusive college preparatory program in accordance with the intent of the Academy's founders. Berwick became a boarding school for boys, with a day department for girls, and expanded its facility by acquiring land for playing fields and old homes for dormitories.


During the 1970s, Berwick transformed from a boarding academy to a country day school, although it was neither historically nor academically part of the Country Day School movement. The founding of a Middle School in 1971 and a Lower School in 1977 and the discontinuation of boarding in 1976 was accompanied by significant enrollment and physical plant expansion continuing to the present day. During this period the school has come to occupy a somewhat unique academic position in between traditional English-model prep schools and the more progressive country day schools, although it is much older than most prep schools and all country day schools." ~ Wikipedia

Street address: Academy St. South Berwick, Maine County / Borough / Parish: York Year listed: 1978 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1750-1799, 1800-1824, 1825-1849, 1850-1874, 1875-1899 Historic function: Education Current function: Education Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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