Barton Academy was a high school in the town of Barton, Vermont and also served surrounding towns for over a century. The Academy was replaced by the Lake Region Union High School on September 11, 1967. Alumni continue to meet annually, and also fund scholarships for graduates of Lake Region. The building also housed the town's grammar school.

History The Academy started in the fall of 1852 in a building on the location now occupied by the school parking lot. There is an early list of students who were enrolled.Rootsweb accessed March 31, 2008Mistakenly identified as "senior class." There was no such class separation then. A student was either ready to take the college entrance exam or not. Students matriculatred individually when they were ready. There were no classes beyond elementary for students who were not intending to attend college It was chartered by the legislature in 1854.

A listing of graduates from 1926, lists the first class as 1886.Early scholars were being tutored to take the college entrance exam, the only method of entering college then. There were no expectations of a formal "graduation" from a "high school" per se. A student would "matriculate" alone and could only tell if their tutoring was effective if they were admitted to the college of their choice. There was no formal training for children not attending college until after WW I and the educational revolution started by John Dewey

The cornerstone of the current building is marked "1907." The project was the biggest building project the town had ever seen. It cost $42,000. An Indian burial ground was discovered during the excavation. There is no record of what happened to those artifacts. The former school was moved across the street in 1909 and later used as a gymnasium and cafeteria. It was torn down in 1980.

In the early 1900s, Barton Academy ranked eighth among all high schools, public and private, in Vermont.

The Academy closed in 1967, replaced by the Lake Region Union High School. The former building, with the name "Barton Academy and Graded School" carved on a granite slab over the entryway, is used as an elementary school.

An addition was completed in 1979.

Architecture Architectural historians Glenn Andres and Curtis Johnson commented that the school had a "finely proportioned central pavilion with quoins and a broken pediment, and a Palladian porch that screens a recessed entrance" and "There is a finesse and logic to the composition that makes this village school more than a pastiche of derivative details, perhaps indicative of industrial Barton's commercial ties to major centers of taste."

Principals Benjamin Hinman Steele, briefly when he was 20 in 1853 or so, a young graduate of Dartmouth and simultaneously studying for the law at the same time! Went on to become a judge on the Vermont Supreme Court and died at the age of 37 George W. Quimby - about 1859 to 1862.However, the Orleans Lamoille Gazetteer significantly fails to mention Barton Academy in 1880 Captain in Civil War, 4th Vermont Infantry, Company D. Killed December 13, 1862, at the Battle of FredericksburgThe Grand Army Post, Barton, was named the George W. Quimby Post #76. The GAR was the 19th century equivalent of the VFW Emilie M. Gleason - June 1877 Other principals of Barton AcademyErnest C. Benjamin - 1880 C.H. Willey - March 1893O'Hara Family History Harry J. Stannard - 1893-1914 F. Jay Bates 1915-? Mr. Meacham - 1924-26 Cedric Pierce - 1931-1948 David Shipp 1948–1952 George MacKenzie 1952-1958+ Cedric Pierce (a second time) 1961-1963 Rev. William Chadwick 1963-1966 Raymond Mason 1966-1967

Athletics The Academy fielded Basketball Teams for both boys and girls and a boys baseball team. It fielded a soccer team beginning about 1958. School colors were orange and black. The mascot was the Yellow Peril. The school's main rival was cross-town Orleans High School.

Recognition State Class C Champions, Baseball 1951

Notable graduates Lee E. Emerson (1917), Governor of Vermont Stephen Perry Jocelyn (1861), US Army brigadier general Francis W. Nye (1936), Major General commanding the Sandia, NM Atomic Laboratory

References

External links School External Link NEKG Vital Records of Vermont Schools