The academy had its genesis in an 1824 petition by a group of local farmers and merchants to the general assembly, asking that they be allowed to hold a lottery to construct a building for "an academy and elementary school, and also a room for public worship."[4][5] The petition was granted to allow $6000 to be raised; this was amended the following year to $10,000.[5] The lottery was sold in May 1825, and an initial six acre land purchase was made in November; one tenant refused to vacate, however, and William Crawford, one of the trustees of the nascent academy, donated an adjacent two acre lot the following May.[5] The cornerstone was laid in August, and the school finally opened in October 1827.[5]
The school operated as a private academy until 1876. In that year the building was leased to the two local public school districts, and the private academy was abandoned.[4][5] Two years later the public schools were consolidated into a single Middletown school district, centered on the old academy building.[5] Classes continued to be held there until 1929, when a new public school building was opened in the town.[2][4] Eventually the academy trustees sold the building to the federal government, which planned to build a post office on the property. Popular reaction led to the formation of the St. Georges Hundred Historical Society, which took possession of the building in 1945.[2][4] The town purchased the property in 1960, and over the years used it to house offices, a library, a police station and a meeting hall.[4]
