West Nottingham Academy
Encyclopedia
West Nottingham Academy was founded in 1744 by the Presbyterian preacher Samuel Finley
, who later become President of Princeton College (now Princeton University). Today, the independent co-ed school serves both boarding and day students in grades 9-12. The 124 acre (0.50181064 km²), tree-lined campus is located in Colora
, Cecil County, Maryland
near the Chesapeake Bay
- an hour and a half south of Philadelphia and fifty minutes north of Baltimore
Google Maps.
West Nottingham Academy is one of the oldest boarding schools in the United States. The school claims to be "the oldest boarding school in the United States" and has the oldest founding date of any school still in operation but did suspend operation at various times in its history. For this reason, the claim as "the oldest" is a point of debate with some. What remains certain is that the school's story began in 1744 and it has shaped the lives of many important figures of American history.
Famous graduates include Benjamin Rush
and Richard Stockton, both signers of the Declaration of Independence
, and John Filson
, historian, author and a founder of Cincinnati, Ohio
.
More recent notable alumni include world-renowned painter Eric Fischl
and basketball player Josh Boone
(PF), a player on the University of Connecticut's 2004 Men's National Championship Team and current member of the NBA's New Jersey Nets
.
)program for international students (25% of WNA's students come from outside the US, including Japan, Australia, South Korea, Barbados, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria, Spain and China).
, a short distance south of what was soon to become the Mason-Dixon line
. The congregation lived on the broad, rolling land known as the Nottingham Lots.
Finley, in later years became president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University
), was a teacher as well as a preacher. Finley held that to be an intelligent Christian one needed to use the mind God provided, and that one’s mind could reach full effectiveness only through training. The task of the church, for Finley, was to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick, to baptize the infants and consecrate marriage, to bury the dead and preach the Word of God. But the task of the church also was to teach men and women to think by exposing them to the great thoughts of the ages in order to produce rational beings capable of creative action in a new and swiftly changing world.
Finley opened the school in 1744. It was a crude log structure at the rear of his own home, located near the present site of the Rising Sun Middle School. The log building on the present campus was built as a replica of the original school building from descriptions in old records and students’ memoirs. The building is currently used as faculty housing.
Within a few years, church and Academy were moved to their present location. A two-story building was erected to house the school activities at the site of what is now the sunken garden at Gayley. When it burned, a single-story building replaced it, only to be destroyed some years later by storm. In 1865 the red brick J. Paul Slaybaugh Old Academy was erected and stands to this day.
The Academy was the first of the Presbyterian preparatory boarding schools and the forerunner of some 1,600 similar academies in the country. As public education became the norm, the Presbyterian Church allowed most of its secondary schools to close or converted them to colleges. Nottingham dropped its formal ties to the church in 1972, but continues
In the last twenty years, the Chesapeake Learning Center was founded, and the school’s decades-long commitment to the education of international students was formalized with the creation of the English as a Second Language curriculum. In addition, enrollment doubled and a middle school was started. The middle school failed and was closed in 2006, completing its last year in 2009.
Many new facilities were constructed, including the C. Herbert Foutz Student Center (1989), the East and West Dormitories (1998), and the Patricia A. Bathon Science Center (2003), or renovated including Magraw Hall (2000), and Finley Hall (2002). Summer 2007 saw the complete renovation of Rush Dormitory, renamed Rush House, and the construction of Durigg Plaza, an outdoor ampphitheater/meeting space for the campus community. Renovation of Rowland dormitory was completed in the summer of 2008.
Under the leadership of Dr. D. John Watson, Ph.D., West Nottingham focuses on the growth and definition of its programs through a process called CASCLE, an acronym for Constructing a Student Centered Learning Environment. Through CASCLE, work groups in the areas of academic curriculum, athletic and activities curriculum, and campus curriculum set goals for program improvement and develop the best pathway for their achievement.
at Colora
, Cecil County
, Maryland
, United States
. It comprises approximately 85 acres (343,983.1 m²), is characterized by a park-like setting of mature trees, a narrow stream, a small lake, and 19th and 20th century buildings. The principal historic buildings include the Old Academy or Canteen, constructed 1864, a single-story, three-part Victorian brick building with a distinctive stick-decorated belfry
; the Gayley House, constructed about 1830, a prominent -story brick dwelling; and Magraw Hall, constructed 1929, a large gambrel-roofed stone administration building. Also on the property are Wiley House (about 1840), Becktel House (about 1900), Hilltop House (about 1900), the barn or old gym (about 1930), as well as the stone entrance and stone bridges. Founded in 1774, the West Nottingham Academy
is the oldest operating boys boarding school in Maryland.
The historic core of the Academy were listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1990 as the West Nottingham Academy Historic District.
Soccer, Basketball, Lacrosse, Golf, Cross Country, Baseball, Softball, Volleyball, Yoga, Martial Arts, and Physical Education.
The Academy also has a rather successful Figure Skating program. Current students include previous members of Team USA, Meredith Pipkin and WYOG hopeful, Michael Johnson who is also a previous national medalist. He is the Intermediate Pairs silver medalist Michael Johnson with Caitlin Belt.
Additional afternoon activities include Yearbook, Theatre, Photography, Green Rams Environmental Club and the school newspaper, The Arrow.
As part of WNA's commitment to lifelong fitness and activity all students are asked to participate in a sport or club throughout the school year, one per trimester.
Samuel Finley
The Rev. Samuel Finley , 1763 DD University of Glasgow . Evangelical preacher and academic, he founded the West Nottingham Academy, and was the fifth president and an original trustee of the College of New Jersey from 1761 until 1766.-Family and students:Finley was the...
, who later become President of Princeton College (now Princeton University). Today, the independent co-ed school serves both boarding and day students in grades 9-12. The 124 acre (0.50181064 km²), tree-lined campus is located in Colora
Colora, Maryland
Colora is an unincorporated community in western Cecil County, Maryland in the United States, near Conowingo and Port Deposit.The zip code of this area is 21917, and has some historic houses and also some new ones, such as some development neighborhoods....
, Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is part of the Delaware Valley. It was named for Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , who was the first Proprietary Governor of the colony of Maryland from 1632 until his death in 1675. The county seat is Elkton. The newspaper...
near the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
- an hour and a half south of Philadelphia and fifty minutes north of Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
Google Maps.
West Nottingham Academy is one of the oldest boarding schools in the United States. The school claims to be "the oldest boarding school in the United States" and has the oldest founding date of any school still in operation but did suspend operation at various times in its history. For this reason, the claim as "the oldest" is a point of debate with some. What remains certain is that the school's story began in 1744 and it has shaped the lives of many important figures of American history.
Famous graduates include Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....
and Richard Stockton, both signers of the Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
, and John Filson
John Filson
John Filson was an American author, historian of Kentucky, pioneer, surveyor and one of the founders of Cincinnati, Ohio.-Biography:...
, historian, author and a founder of Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
.
More recent notable alumni include world-renowned painter Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker.-Early life:Fischl was born in New York City and grew up on suburban Long Island; his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1967...
and basketball player Josh Boone
Josh Boone
Oscar Joshua "Josh" Boone is an American professional basketball player. He was a forward–center for the Connecticut Huskies, where he played for three years. He declared for the 2006 NBA Draft after his junior season, forgoing his final year of college...
(PF), a player on the University of Connecticut's 2004 Men's National Championship Team and current member of the NBA's New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
.
Academics
West Nottingham offers a college preparatory program that emphasizes critical thinking. Classes are offered in the arts, humanities, foreign languages, mathematics and sciences. The academic program also offers an English as Second-Language (ESLESL
ESL is a common abbreviation for English as a Second Language, see English language learning and teaching.ESL may also refer to:-Companies:...
)program for international students (25% of WNA's students come from outside the US, including Japan, Australia, South Korea, Barbados, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria, Spain and China).
History
West Nottingham’s early graduates include many of the most prominent colonial Americans. In 1744, an Irish Presbyterian preacher Samuel Finley was called to take charge of the newly formed congregation on the lower branch of the Octoraro CreekOctoraro Creek
Octoraro Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, joining it above the Susquehanna's mouth at Chesapeake Bay. The Octoraro rises as an East and West Branch in Pennsylvania. The East Branch and Octoraro Creek form the southern half of the border between Lancaster and Chester counties until...
, a short distance south of what was soon to become the Mason-Dixon line
Mason-Dixon line
The Mason–Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. It forms a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and...
. The congregation lived on the broad, rolling land known as the Nottingham Lots.
Finley, in later years became president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
), was a teacher as well as a preacher. Finley held that to be an intelligent Christian one needed to use the mind God provided, and that one’s mind could reach full effectiveness only through training. The task of the church, for Finley, was to administer the sacraments and comfort the sick, to baptize the infants and consecrate marriage, to bury the dead and preach the Word of God. But the task of the church also was to teach men and women to think by exposing them to the great thoughts of the ages in order to produce rational beings capable of creative action in a new and swiftly changing world.
Finley opened the school in 1744. It was a crude log structure at the rear of his own home, located near the present site of the Rising Sun Middle School. The log building on the present campus was built as a replica of the original school building from descriptions in old records and students’ memoirs. The building is currently used as faculty housing.
Within a few years, church and Academy were moved to their present location. A two-story building was erected to house the school activities at the site of what is now the sunken garden at Gayley. When it burned, a single-story building replaced it, only to be destroyed some years later by storm. In 1865 the red brick J. Paul Slaybaugh Old Academy was erected and stands to this day.
The Academy was the first of the Presbyterian preparatory boarding schools and the forerunner of some 1,600 similar academies in the country. As public education became the norm, the Presbyterian Church allowed most of its secondary schools to close or converted them to colleges. Nottingham dropped its formal ties to the church in 1972, but continues
In the last twenty years, the Chesapeake Learning Center was founded, and the school’s decades-long commitment to the education of international students was formalized with the creation of the English as a Second Language curriculum. In addition, enrollment doubled and a middle school was started. The middle school failed and was closed in 2006, completing its last year in 2009.
Many new facilities were constructed, including the C. Herbert Foutz Student Center (1989), the East and West Dormitories (1998), and the Patricia A. Bathon Science Center (2003), or renovated including Magraw Hall (2000), and Finley Hall (2002). Summer 2007 saw the complete renovation of Rush Dormitory, renamed Rush House, and the construction of Durigg Plaza, an outdoor ampphitheater/meeting space for the campus community. Renovation of Rowland dormitory was completed in the summer of 2008.
Under the leadership of Dr. D. John Watson, Ph.D., West Nottingham focuses on the growth and definition of its programs through a process called CASCLE, an acronym for Constructing a Student Centered Learning Environment. Through CASCLE, work groups in the areas of academic curriculum, athletic and activities curriculum, and campus curriculum set goals for program improvement and develop the best pathway for their achievement.
Historic district
West Nottingham Academy Historic District is a national historic districtHistoric district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
at Colora
Colora, Maryland
Colora is an unincorporated community in western Cecil County, Maryland in the United States, near Conowingo and Port Deposit.The zip code of this area is 21917, and has some historic houses and also some new ones, such as some development neighborhoods....
, Cecil County
Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is part of the Delaware Valley. It was named for Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , who was the first Proprietary Governor of the colony of Maryland from 1632 until his death in 1675. The county seat is Elkton. The newspaper...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It comprises approximately 85 acres (343,983.1 m²), is characterized by a park-like setting of mature trees, a narrow stream, a small lake, and 19th and 20th century buildings. The principal historic buildings include the Old Academy or Canteen, constructed 1864, a single-story, three-part Victorian brick building with a distinctive stick-decorated belfry
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
; the Gayley House, constructed about 1830, a prominent -story brick dwelling; and Magraw Hall, constructed 1929, a large gambrel-roofed stone administration building. Also on the property are Wiley House (about 1840), Becktel House (about 1900), Hilltop House (about 1900), the barn or old gym (about 1930), as well as the stone entrance and stone bridges. Founded in 1774, the West Nottingham Academy
West Nottingham Academy
West Nottingham Academy was founded in 1744 by the Presbyterian preacher Samuel Finley, who later become President of Princeton College . Today, the independent co-ed school serves both boarding and day students in grades 9-12...
is the oldest operating boys boarding school in Maryland.
The historic core of the Academy were listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1990 as the West Nottingham Academy Historic District.
Athletics & Activities
Though the school community is small, the academy does field a variety of sports teams including:Soccer, Basketball, Lacrosse, Golf, Cross Country, Baseball, Softball, Volleyball, Yoga, Martial Arts, and Physical Education.
The Academy also has a rather successful Figure Skating program. Current students include previous members of Team USA, Meredith Pipkin and WYOG hopeful, Michael Johnson who is also a previous national medalist. He is the Intermediate Pairs silver medalist Michael Johnson with Caitlin Belt.
Additional afternoon activities include Yearbook, Theatre, Photography, Green Rams Environmental Club and the school newspaper, The Arrow.
As part of WNA's commitment to lifelong fitness and activity all students are asked to participate in a sport or club throughout the school year, one per trimester.
Notable alumni
- John ArcherJohn Archer (Maryland)John Archer was a U.S. Congressman from Maryland, representing the sixth district for three terms from 1801–1807...
- early Maryland politician - Josh BooneJosh BooneOscar Joshua "Josh" Boone is an American professional basketball player. He was a forward–center for the Connecticut Huskies, where he played for three years. He declared for the 2006 NBA Draft after his junior season, forgoing his final year of college...
- NBA basketball player - Ross Cameron - President of Charms Candy Company and inventor of the Charms Blow Pop
- Austin Lane CrothersAustin Lane CrothersAustin Lane Crothers , a member of the United States Democratic Party, was the 46th Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1908 to 1912.-Early life and career:...
- Maryland governor, 1908–1912 - Taylor Crothers - photographer
- John FilsonJohn FilsonJohn Filson was an American author, historian of Kentucky, pioneer, surveyor and one of the founders of Cincinnati, Ohio.-Biography:...
- author, founder of Cincinnati - Eric FischlEric FischlEric Fischl is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker.-Early life:Fischl was born in New York City and grew up on suburban Long Island; his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1967...
- artist and sculptor
- Ebenezer HazardEbenezer HazardEbenezer Hazard was deputy Postmaster of New York City who later became Postmaster General.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia and educated at Princeton University. He established a publishing business in New York in , but quit that business after five years...
- United States Postmaster GeneralUnited States Postmaster GeneralThe United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...
from 1782 to 1789 - Peter H. KostmayerPeter H. KostmayerPeter Houston Kostmayer is a Democratic politician who served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.-Biography:...
- former US Congressman from Pennsylvania - Alexander MartinAlexander MartinAlexander Martin was the fourth and seventh Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1782 to 1784 and from 1789 to 1792.-Biography:...
- early governor of North Carolina - John MorganJohn Morgan (physician)John Morgan was co-founder of the Medical College at the University of Pennsylvania, the first medical school in Colonial America; and he served as the second "Chief physician & director general" of the Continental Army...
- co-founder of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School - Benjamin RushBenjamin RushBenjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....
- Father of American psychology, signer of the Declaration of Independence - William Shippen, Jr. - co-founder of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School
- Richard Stockton - signer of the Declaration of Independence
External links
- http://www.wna.org
- West Nottingham Academy Historic District, Cecil County, including photo from 2002, at Maryland Historical Trust