Mercersburg Academy

Prep school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, US From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mercersburg Academy (formerly Marshall College and Mercersburg College) is an independent college-preparatory boarding and day high school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Coordinates39°49′34″N 77°53′54″W
Former name[clarification needed]
Marshall College (1836–65)
Mercersburg College (1865–93)
TypeIndependent selective college-preparatory boarding and day high school
MottoLatin: Integritas, Virilitas, Fidelitas
(Integrity, Virility, Fidelity)
Quick facts Location, Coordinates ...
Mercersburg Academy
Location
100 Academy Drive

Mercersburg
,
Pennsylvania
17236

United States
Coordinates39°49′34″N 77°53′54″W
Information
Former name[clarification needed]
Marshall College (1836–65)
Mercersburg College (1865–93)
TypeIndependent selective college-preparatory boarding and day high school
MottoLatin: Integritas, Virilitas, Fidelitas
(Integrity, Virility, Fidelity)
Religious affiliation
Nonsectarian[1]
Established1836 (190 years ago) (1836)
FounderWilliam Mann Irvine
StatusOperational
CEEB code392570
NCES School ID
01197796[1]
Head of school
Quentin McDowell
Staff153
Faculty106
Teaching staff
55
Grades9–12
GenderCoeducational
Enrollment452[1] (2024–2025)
 • Grade 988[1]
 • Grade 10110[1]
 • Grade 11119[1]
 • Grade 12135[1]
Average class size
12
Student to teacher ratio
7.6[1]
Classes offered
150
LanguageEnglish
Hours in school day
6[1]
Campus size
300 acres (120 ha)
Campus type
Rural[1]
ColorsBlue and white   
Athletics conference
Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL)
Sports27 varsity teams
NicknameThe Storm
AccreditationsMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA),[2] National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS),[1] TABS,[1] PAIS
NewspaperThe Mercersburg News
YearbookKarux
Endowment$422 million[3]
Budget$39.5 million[3]
School fees
$310–$1,360
Annual tuition
$78,900 (boarding)
$50,800 (day)[4]
Alumni12,211
Burton Richter
Websitemercersburg.edu
Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg Academy is located in Pennsylvania
Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg Academy is located in the United States
Mercersburg Academy
LocationPA 16, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
Area15 acres (6.1 ha)
Built1836
ArchitectMultiple
Architectural styleClassical Revival, Late Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.84003374[5]
Added to NRHPJune 21, 1984 (41 years ago) (1984-06-21)
Close

Founded in 1893, the school enrolls approximately 447 students in grades 9 through 12, including postgraduates, on a campus about ninety miles northwest by north of Washington, D.C.[6]

History

Main Hall

On March 31, 1836, the Pennsylvania General Assembly granted a charter to Marshall College to be located in Mercersburg. Dr. Frederick Augustus Rauch came from Switzerland to be the first president of the college under the sponsorship of the Reformed Church in the United States. Rauch served as president from 1836 until 1841. His successor in the position was John Williamson Nevin, who served until 1853 when Marshall College joined with Franklin College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to become Franklin & Marshall College.

At this time, the preparatory department of Marshall College became known as Marshall Academy, which later became Marshall Collegiate Institute. In 1865, the name was again changed to Mercersburg College, under whose charter the school continues to operate. The historical tie to the church continues through Mercersburg's membership in the Council for Higher Education of the United Church of Christ.

Artist Richard Rummell produced an early 20th-century aerial view of the college.[7]

In 1893, Dr. William Mann Irvine was selected by the Board of Regents to lead the school, newly christened The Mercersburg Academy. Irvine oversaw considerable growth in enrollment, faculty, and facilities until he died in 1928. He was succeeded by Boyd Edwards (1928–1941), Charles Tippetts '12 (1941–1961), Bill Fowle (1961–1972), and Walter Burgin '53 (1972–1997).[8]

Douglas Hale was appointed head of school in 1997, coming from Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he had been a teacher, assistant headmaster, and, since 1973, headmaster. During Hale's tenure, Mercersburg's endowment grew from $64 million in 1997 to $251 million in June 2015.[9]

Hale was succeeded in 2016 by Katherine Titus, who was the first female head of school in the academy's history.[10] Titus was succeeded by Quentin McDowell in 2021.[11]

The school is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Boarding School Group (MABS).[12]

Admission

As of the 2024–2025 school year, 452 students were enrolled: 50% boys and 50% girls. Eighty-one percent of the students were boarding students, while nineteen percent were day students.[9]

Students come from around the world, representing 31 nations, 28 American states, and the District of Columbia. International students accounted for 20% of the student body, and 44% of domestic students were people of color.[13] Seventy-eight percent of the Mercersburg Class of 2017 was accepted by one or more colleges defined as 'Most Competitive' or 'Highly Competitive' by Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, with sixty-eight percent accepted by one of U.S. News & World Report's Top 50 National Universities or Top 50 Liberal Arts Colleges.[13]

Tuition for the 2025–2026 school year was $78,900 for boarding students and $50,800 for day students.[14] Fifty percent of Academy students receive financial aid (need- and merit-based). The school's total financial-aid budget is more than $11 million.[4] Mercersburg merit scholarships include the Arce Scholarships, the Guttman Scholarship, the Hale Scholarship, the Legacy Scholarships, the Mercersburg Scholarships, the Regents Scholarships, the Witmer Scholarship, and the 1893 Scholarship.[4]

Endowment

As of February 2026, the academy has an endowment of $453 million,[15] making it one of the top-ten-highest endowment-per-student independent schools in the country.[16] On October 10, 2013, Mercersburg alumna Deborah Simon (class of 1974) pledged $100 million to the school, making her gift the largest in the school's history and one of the largest ever to an independent secondary school in the United States.[17]

Curriculum and activities

Mercersburg offers 150 traditional courses, including more than 40 honors and Advanced Studies courses.[9]

Athletics

Mercersburg baseball player, poster by Bristow Adams, 1903

Since 2000, Mercersburg has been a member of the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL), which includes Blair Academy, The Hill School, Hun School of Princeton, Lawrenceville School, Peddie School, and The Pennington School.[18]

Alumni have competed for professional teams, including the Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles (MLB), Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL), and Harlem Globetrotters.[19]

Stony Batter Players (theatre)

Mercersburg embraced the performing arts as early as 1899 with the formation of Stony Batter, the school's first drama group. Stony Batter was founded by Camille Irvine, the wife of the school's founding headmaster, William Mann Irvine.[20] The name "Stony Batter" was adopted in honor of the place near campus where U.S. president James Buchanan was born.

Today, the group is known as Stony Batter Players. Recent productions have included Fiddler on the Roof, Mamma Mia!, Proof, The Real Inspector Hound, Chicago, The Diary of Anne Frank, Antigone: An Apocalypse, Legally Blonde: The Musical, Urinetown, Mere Mortals, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, World War Z, Lend Me a Tenor, and Six, among others. In the spring, Stony Batter typically performs scenes from the classical or Shakespearean repertoire or from a modern "10-Minute Play Festival". Future Academy Award–winning actor Jimmy Stewart (class of 1928) performed in Stony Batter productions while a student at Mercersburg.[21] Academy Award–winner Benicio Del Toro (class of 1985) is also a Mercersburg alumni.[22]

Music

Music played an integral role at Mercersburg practically from the beginning. Dr. Irvine led the Mercersburg Academy Glee Club for several years, and in 1901, he published The Mercersburg Academy Song Book.[23]

School traditions

The Washington Irving Literary Society and John Marshall Literary Society—the school's oldest student organizations—trace their roots back before Mercersburg Academy was established. Before Marshall College moved to Lancaster to become Franklin & Marshall College, its students created the Diagnothian and Goethean literary societies. In 1865, after the founding of Mercersburg College, the Washington Irving Literary Society was born; within a year, the rival John Marshall Literary Society emerged.[24] William Mann Irvine helped revive the two societies at the academy's founding, and the rival societies have competed against one another ever since. All students attending Mercersburg are members of one of the two societies; those with family members who attended the school before them may choose to represent the same society. Otherwise, society officers meet early in the school year to select new students for each group. (This replaces the early practice of returning students racing to meet stagecoaches carrying new students to campus in hopes of convincing those students to join a particular society.)

What began as a midwinter debate competition has evolved into a week of intense competition in everything from basketball and swimming to chess and poker. The climactic event of the week is Declamation, a speaking contest where five representatives from each society deliver prepared monologues. Winners of each event during the week earn points for their respective societies, with the most points awarded at Declamation. The winning society claims bragging rights for the next twelve months.[25]

Each year, on the Friday evening of Alumni Weekend (often held in October), students gather on the steps of Main Hall for Step Songs, which involves the singing of school songs and traditional cheers as a pep rally for the next day's athletic contests, usually against a Mid-Atlantic Prep League opponent. The tradition evolved from an annual concert for visiting alums, given by the Glee Club under the direction of Headmaster Irvine, into its present form. (Irvine suffered a stroke during Step Songs in 1928 and died a week later.)[26]

Campus

Mercersburg's rural 300-acre campus includes seven student dormitories, a chapel, a library, an arts center, two additional academic buildings, a student center, a dining hall, an alums and parent center, a college counseling center, 10 playing fields (including a synthetic turf field), a gymnasium and field house, an aquatic center, a squash center, and a tennis center.[27]

The James Buchanan Cabin (believed to be the birthplace of the first Pennsylvanian to be elected president of the United States)[28] was originally located at Stony Batter, an early trading post about 2.5 miles west of campus, and was erected sometime before 1791. It was moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where it served various uses. To ensure that the cabin would be adequately stored and maintained, the school purchased it in 1953 and placed it near Nolde Gymnasium on campus.[29]

Burgin Center for the Arts

Standing on the former site of Boone Hall, the Burgin Center for the Arts opened in the fall of 2006, providing dedicated space to house the school's entire theatre, music, dance, and visual-arts curriculum. The 65,500-square-foot facility is named for alumnus and former headmaster Walter Burgin '53 and his wife, Barbara. Designed by Polshek Partnership, the Burgin Center hosts concerts, theatre productions, guest speakers, and all-school meetings.[30] Violinist Itzhak Perlman performed at the building's opening gala.[31]

The Carillon and organ

Irvine Memorial Chapel

The Swoope Carillon in Barker Tower of the Irvine Memorial Chapel is one of 163 traditional carillons in the United States.[32] A gift of Mr. Henry B. Swoope, the original 43 bronze bells were cast in 1926 by the English firm of Gillett and Johnston of Croydon. The bells contain bits of historic metal collected worldwide by alumni and friends of the school, including copper coins, metal from Old Ironsides, pieces of artillery shells gathered from the fields of France in World War I, a shaving from the Liberty Bell, and bits from Admiral Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, HMS Victory. The tower is named for Bryan Barker, the school's carillonneur for more than fifty years.[33]

The chapel organ was a gift of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Wood. Built by the Skinner Organ Company of Boston in 1925, the organ has 55 stops, about 4,000 pipes, 27 couplers, and 33 adjustable combination pistons.[33]

Notable alumni

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by editing the page to add missing items, with references to reliable sources.

Medal of Honor recipients

Nobel Prize laureates

Olympic gold medalists

Academy Award winners

Rhodes scholars

Academics

Arts and literature

Business

Government and politics

Journalism

Military

Performing arts

Sports

References

External links

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