Worcester Academy history

“In 1854, the first site, a 60 acre farm on what now is Main Street was sold by the trustees.

In 1869, Isaac Davis, president since the founding, bought the present site including the building now known as Davis Hall.

And in 1882, the Academy welcomed principal Doctor Daniel Webster Abercrombie, for whom the head of school’s house is named today.

That did not change in 1887 when Daniel Webster Abercrombie moved his family out Davis Hall and into the house that now bears his name.

In 1889, the Academy was about to embark on a grand expansion with the construction of its first major classroom building.

A Greek teacher, he coined the phrase in 1890 to motivate the students to “Achieve the Honorable,” and in the early years of its existence, the phrase was always in ancient Greek.

In 1892, the school seal was inscribed on front entrances Adams and Dexter halls as well as on the mantels of fireplaces in the public spaces.

Built in 1897, its curriculum was strictly sciences, not the Classics.

Walker Hall photograph after 1907

In 1997, Dexter P. Morse arrived to lead what has become one of the most astonishing periods of new growth and stability in the school’s history.

Construction of New Balance Fields and Rader Hall (the first new academic building in a century) were completed in 2001.

A $31.5 million capital campaign was also successfully completed (the school’s endowment now exceeds $30 million) in 2003.

In 2006, Boston Magazine named Worcester Academy “Best Math School.” Also in 2006, the Academy bought six acres of the former St Vincent Hospital property, located just two blocks away from the school’s main campus; four years later, the school purchased another four acres adjacent to those parcels.