Wiscasset Academy - 1807

Wiscasset Academy - 1807. Wiscasset, Maine. , Early Wiscasset education consisted of free district schools, with tutors teaching reading, writing, arithmetic and the Bible. Supplies and classroom space were donated. In 1807, a group of town leaders built this private academy to provide higher education., By 1848, the co-ed school had 87 students, whose parents paid $5 for an eleven-week term. The curriculum included English, classical Greek, Latin, or French and the option to study Italian, Spanish, music, and drawing. In 1873, it became the town high school, with costs split between parents and the state., In 1889, every town in Maine was required to provide free education through grade twelve. The Academy became Wiscasset's public high school, which remained in this building until 1923. Here we see the graduating class of 1917. In the back row (l-r) are Gus Hilton (with his puppet Edgar), Kelton Southard, Ralph Hatch, Merle Day, Lawrence Dickinson and Earl Carleton (marshal). In front are Mary Sewall, Rebecca Clifford, Bertha Barnes, Celia Hatch and Viola Dickinson., In 1956, the building became part of the Lincoln County Cultural and Historical Association. Today, it is a nonprofit gallery of Maine art open to the public.