Black River Academy
Description
The Black River Academy building stands on the south side of High Street, a short way west of the Ludlow village green. It is a three-story masonry structure, built out of load-bearing brick set on a granite foundation. It has a gabled roof with projection hip-roofed sections, and a four-story tower at one corner, topped by a truncated pyramidal roof. Windows are of a variety of sizes, but are generally set in round-arched openings. Bands of cut stone provide horizontal emphasis. The main entrance is in a deep recess under a round-arch opening. Roof lines of the main roof and tower feature corbelled brickwork at the eave.
History
Black River Academy was chartered in Ludlow in 1835 and operated as a school, serving as the Town of Ludlow's public high school until 1938, when a new school was built. The original academy building burned early in the school's history, and the school operated in a church for 44 years until this building was built in 1888. Notable alumni of the Black River Academy include U.S. President Calvin Coolidge; Rotary founder Paul P. Harris; John Garibaldi Sargent, who was U.S. Attorney General during Coolidge's presidency; Vermont Governor William W. Stickney; United States Senator Ernest Willard Gibson; Vermont Supreme Court Justice William H. Walker; US Congressman from Missouri Henry M. Pollard; and author and historian Abby Maria Hemenway. After the school moved out, the building was used for a time as a convalescent home.
Since 1972, the building has housed the Black River Academy Museum, a museum of local history.
See also
- Ludlow Graded School, located next door on the original 1835 academy site
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Windsor County, Vermont
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Black River Academy". National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
- ^ History of Black River Academy Archived January 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Black River Academy Museum website, accessed October 9, 2009
- ^ Black River Academy, 14 High Street Archived July 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Black River Academy Museum website, accessed October 9, 2009
- ^ Black River Academy Museum and Historical Society Archived February 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance website, accessed October 9, 2009
- ^ Some Famous Alumni of Black River Academy Archived January 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Black River Academy Museum website, accessed October 9, 2009
- ^ The New England Society of St. Louis (1903). Proceedings at the Seventeenth Annual Reunion. St. Louis: W. J. Kesl. p. 62 – via Google Books.