East Greenwich Academy

The East Greenwich Academy (originally known as Kent Academy) was a private Methodist boarding school in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, USA that was in existence from 1802 until 1943.

East Greenwich Academy, c.1890
East Greenwich Academy, c. 1877

History

The school was founded in 1802 by eight prominent men from East Greenwich and Warwick, who served as stockholders of the school. The campus was built on five acres of farmland belonging to Ethan Clark, which overlooked Narragansett Bay. In 1841 the Providence Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church took over the school and by the mid-nineteenth century nearly three fourths of all Rhode Island teachers were alumni of the academy. After dwindling enrollment during the Great Depression and World War II, the academy closed in 1943. The town of East Greenwich purchased the buildings and used them as a school for several years until many of them were demolished in the 1960s. Around the same time, St. Luke's Episcopal Church purchased and demolished two of the other buildings. The headmaster's house with its ornate cupola still survives at 112 Peirce Street.[1][2][3] The school's gymnasium, Swift Gymnasium, also survives and is used for local events and is the site of the "Academy Players," a theater group named after the old academy.[4]

Prominent alumni and faculty

References
  1. "Academy's golden days, long history near end" by C. Eugene Emery, Jr., Providence Journal 4/26/1999 http://www.projo.com/specials/century/month4/426wb1.htm
  2. "Catalogue of the East Greenwich Academy, Founded 1802, East Greenwich, R. I.For Five Terms Ending June 22, 1893." http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scwhite/EastGreenwich/index.html
  3. History of the town of East Greenwich and adjacent territory: from 1677 to 1877 (J. A. & R. A. Reid, 1877) pg. 202-207
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-03-26. Retrieved 2011-01-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "ALDRICH, Nelson Wilmarth, (1841 - 1915)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  6. "BRAYTON, William Daniel, (1815 - 1887)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  7. Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1897). American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies with Over 1,400 Portraits : a Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Lives and Achievements of American Women During the Nineteenth Century. Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick. pp. 178–.
  8. "GREENE, Albert Collins, (1792 - 1863)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  9. Chisholm, Hugh (1910). The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences ..., Volume 12. Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 538.
  10. "RICHARDSON, Harry Alden, (1853 - 1928)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved March 26, 2014.

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