Building date: 1841 or 1842 (two sources), demolished in March 1930
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Map views courtesy Google Maps. Location has not been determined.
Town of Walworth and Wayne County Maps
"The Cobblestone Houses of Upstate New York", compiled by Dorothy Wells Pease. Research done in collaboration with Hazed B. Jeffery, supplemented with material furnished by Carl F. Schmidt, 1941. Reference the fifth paragraph on page 35.
Walworth Academy history sheet. From the personal research of cobblestone historian Karen Crandall.
The original Walworth Academy was legally incorporated as a private corporation by an act of the New York State Legislature on May 12, 1841 and was to accept both male and female students. Its capital stock was $2,500 with the privilege of increasing it to $5,000, in $10 shares. The original trustees were Jonathan Boynton, Amos Turner, Elias Knapp, Louis McLouth, John Lawrence, Lewis Eddy, John McLouth, Benjamin Hill and Vaniah Yeomans.
A year later, a school was constructed of cobblestone at a cost of $4,000 on Academy Street. Stones were hauled from Lake Ontario. Most of this money was paid for through the sale of stock in the Walworth Academy; each share of stock cost $10.00 and entitled the holder to one vote in the corporation. The building was divided into two departments with a qualified teacher in each area, accommodating a total of 100 students. Professor E. B. Wadsworth was the first Principal.
The Academy was similar to a high school. Entry requirement was a preliminary certificate, which was equivalent to an eighth grade education. Many of the Academy students boarded at the school or with families in town. A practice of "basket-boarding" was a common procedure and enabled many students to live cheaper than the $2 a week for room and board. Students who lived nearby walked, rode horseback, or drove a carriage - depending on the time of year and distance. Many students walked five or six miles one way to attend school.
A nine-member board of trustees managed the property and concerns of the corporation. Tuition payments were used to defray the expenses of the institution, most of which involved payment of salaries. The Principal of the Academy received a yearly salary of about $800, while teachers were paid about $400 a year. The Preceptress (the female instructor) received only half the amount paid to the Principal. The tuition also paid for fuel and light bills, which averaged around $49.22 a year.
The most noted Principal was Susan Cleveland Yeomans, sister of President Grover Cleveland, who came here in 1870. Another noted Principal was J. Carlton Norris, who taught there from 1874 to 1885. He so endeared himself to his students that a Norris Students' Association was created in 1922. It was decided to form an alumni group of former Norris students. They annually held a reunion to reminisce about their days spent in the pursuit of education at Walworth Academy under the "dynamic personality of J. Carlton Norris." The last reunion was held in 1948.
In July 1972 Charles Tuttle and Robert Wignall, president and treasurer respectively of the Norris Organization, presented a check for $2,697.82 to the Walworth-Seely Public Library. This amount was to be used to reduce the indebtedness for the library's addition and was given in memory of sponsors and students of Walworth Academy 1840-1903.
The Second Academy
In 1856, a committee was elected by the trustees to consider the subject of enlarging the Academy. It was agreed that an additional academic building should be added the coming year. In 1857 a three-story brick structure was erected to the east of the first Academy. The new "Walworth Academy and Wayne County Female Academy" cost about $8,000. The principal was C. H. Dann. The older building was then used as a boarding home and residence for the principal. The classical course offered at the Academy prepared the student for any college in the United States.
In 1877 the original Academy was sold to the Patrons of Husbandry (Walworth Grange #289) and used by them as a Grange Hall. The second floor was remodeled into meeting rooms and a few years later the first floor was made into a dining room and kitchen. The grounds of the old Academy, combined with those of the new Academy, were ample for outdoor exercise of students and were well shaded with maple, elm, and locust trees.
The cost of the apparatus to equip this school totaled $800. The academic department was certified by the University of the State of New York as the Walworth Union Free School in 1903. Three years later the school received certification as a Senior School. In 1912 it received certification as a high school. The first graduating class was in June 1912.
Razing the Schools
The Academy continued with little change until 1929, when voters in District No. 1 approved a bond issue of $80,000 to build a new school building. In March, 1930 the old Academy buildings were demolished. Classes were temporarily held in the Grange Hall on Main Street. This was the former Pacific Hotel. The new Walworth School opened on September 8, 1930, with an enrollment of 182 students. For 50 years it served this area well until it was closed in 1980. It was demolished in 2014.
Sources
History of Schools in Walworth by Principal Roger S. Pembroke, February 16, 1977
School Daze: The Two Academies by Dorothy French. Walworth Historical Society Newsletter, Vol. 39 No. 1 July, 2014.
P. 162, Chapter 88, Laws of New York, 1841
Memoirs of Walworth Academy by Howard D. Joslyn Jr., 1962
Eighty-Ninth Annual Report, Regents of the University of the State of New York, 1876 Richard Palmer blog.
Wayne Historians Organization (WHO), Historic Sites Inventory Walworth Academy Historic Marker
 1858 Wayne County Wal-13 Excerpt Map.jpg ¹ |  Walworth Academy.png ² Original Walworth Academy building at right. |
¹ 1853 Wayne County Was-13 Excerpt Map courtesy Library of Congress.
² Photograph courtesy Walworth Historical Society collection, Richard Palmer.
