Private, college-prep, day school in Albany, New York, United States
The Albany Academy
135 Academy Road
, 12208
United States
Type
Private ,
College-prep ,
Day Motto Honor Integritas Officium (Honor, Integrity, Service) Established 1813; 211 years ago (1813 )
Sister school
Albany Academy for Girls
CEEB code 330035 Head of school Christopher J. Lauricella Faculty 50+ teachers Grades
P –
12 Gender
Boys Enrollment 315 (AAG), 323 (AA)
638 (Combined Boys & Girls) Average class size 16 students Student to teacher ratio 9:1 Campus size 25 acres (100,000 m2 ) Campus type
Suburban Color(s) Red and Black Athletics 13 interscholastic sports teams Athletics conference Colonial Council;
NEPSAC Mascot Cadets Tuition $13,500-$23,100 Affiliation
The Albany Academies
NYSAIS Website
www .albanyacademies .org
The Albany Academy is an independent
college preparatory
day school for boys in
Albany, New York . It enrolls students from Preschool (age 3) to Grade 12. It was established in 1813 by a charter signed by Mayor
Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer and the city council of Albany. In July 2007, the once separate Albany Academy and
Albany Academy for Girls merged into
The Albany Academies . Both schools retain much of their pre-merger tradition and character, and each continues to give diplomas under its own name.
History
The Old Academy Building, now the
Joseph Henry Memorial
The Academy's cupola rises above the main building is topped with a fish and pumpkin.
The Albany Academy is the oldest day school for boys in
New York state 's
Capital Region . The Academy was chartered in March 1813 to educate the sons of Albany's political elite and rapidly growing merchant class. In the
Census three years prior, Albany was the tenth-largest city in the United States, and would remain so through the 1850s due to the prominence of the
Erie Canal .
Classes began within months after the charter was granted, offering a college preparatory track (including intensive study of Ancient Greek, and Latin) and an arithmetic-based track to prepare young men for Albany's role as a center of commerce. Two years later, in 1815, a purpose-built building was completed in present-day Academy Park, adjacent to the
New York State Capitol . The
Federal-style building, now known as the Old Academy and headquarters of the City School District of Albany, was designed by renowned Albany architect
Philip Hooker . The building is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places .
[1]
[2]
Current Academy Building
In 1870, in response to a lack of military preparation institutions in the north during the
American Civil War , the Albany Academy adopted the
Battalion Leadership Program, instructing the "cadets" in military procedure and the art of leadership. In 2005, the school ended compulsory involvement in the program in favor of a House-based leadership program commonly found in English
preparatory schools .
In 1931, the school moved from its original downtown building in present-day Academy Park to its current location on the corner of
Hackett Boulevard and Academy Road, in the University Heights section of Albany. Designed by Marcus T. Reynolds in the
neo-Georgian style , the building incorporates many elements of the Old Academy building, namely the main entryway and cupola. The school stands approximately two miles from the city center. The red-brick Academy building's marble cornerstone was laid by the then-governor of New York and future
president
Franklin D. Roosevelt .
In 2005, The Albany Academy ended its longstanding Army
JROTC program.
In July 2007, the board of trustees announced that The Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls would merge into The Albany Academies.
Accreditation and memberships
The Albany Academies are accredited by the
New York State Association of Independent Schools and recognized by the Regents of the State of New York.
Alumni
Government, law, business, and public policy
Learned Hand , Class of 1889
William Barnes Jr. , chairman of the
New York Republican State Committee and member of the
Republican National Committee
T. Garry Buckley ,
72nd Lieutenant Governor of Vermont .
John W. Causey ,
United States Representative from
Delaware
Norton Chase ,
New York State Assemblyman and
New York State Senator
E. Harold Cluett ,
U.S. Representative from
New York
Andrew J. Colvin , district attorney of Albany County and
New York State Senator
Edwin Corning , businessman,
Lieutenant Governor of New York
Edwin Corning Jr. , member of the
New York State Assembly
Erastus Corning 2nd ,
Mayor of Albany from 1942 to 1983
Parker Corning ,
U.S. Representative from
New York
Frederick A. Conkling ,
U.S. Representative from
New York
Learned Hand , justice of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit , regarded as the most influential American jurist never to sit on the
Supreme Court of the United States
Francis Hendricks ,
Mayor of Syracuse and president of the State Bank of Syracuse.
Abraham Lansing , lawyer,
New York State Treasurer , and
New York State Senator
James Campbell Matthews , attorney and judge, New York's first African-American law school graduate
Roger McNamee , venture capital and private equity investor, founder of
Elevation Partners and
Silver Lake Partners
Peter P. Murphy , physician and politician
Stephen P. Nash , lawyer, president of the
New York City Bar Association
Frederic P. Olcott , banker, stock broker, and
New York State Comptroller
Rufus Wheeler Peckham , Class of 1855
Rufus Wheeler Peckham ,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on the
Supreme Court of the United States (1895–1909)
Wheeler Hazard Peckham , lawyer,
U.S. Supreme Court nominee
John V. L. Pruyn ,
U.S. Representative from
New York
William Gorham Rice , New York state government official, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner
Henry M. Sage , New York State Assemblyman and New York State Senator
Charles Emory Smith , U.S. Minister to Russia (1890–1892),
U.S. Postmaster General (1898–1902)
Phillip Steck ,
Democratic member of the
New York State Assembly
Peter G. Ten Eyck ,
U.S. Representative from
New York
John Boyd Thacher II ,
Mayor of Albany from 1926 to 1941
Ralph W. Thomas , New York State Senator
Charles Tracey ,
U.S. Representative from
New York
Chauncey Vibbard , organizer of the
New York Central Railroad and
U.S. Representative from
New York
Henry Waldron ,
U.S. Representative from
Michigan
Charles W. van Rensselaer first officer and paymaster aboard the
SS Central America when it was lost during a hurricane in September 1857
Medicine and academia
John Seiler Brubacher , author, educational philosopher,
Yale University professor
Andrew Sloan Draper , jurist, author, and president of the
University of Illinois
William Durden , president of
Dickinson College
Julian Gibbs , president of
Amherst College
Henry Hun ,
physician and professor of
nervous diseases at the
Albany Medical College
Jesse Montgomery Mosher ,
physician credited with establishing the first
psychiatric ward within the organization of a
general hospital
Stewart Myers , Robert C. Merton Professor of Financial Economics at the
MIT Sloan School of Management , coined the term
real option
Douglas M. North , president of
Alaska Pacific University and
Prescott College , and
head of school of
The Albany Academies
Martin Seligman , psychologist at the
University of Pennsylvania known for his work on
learned helplessness and
positive psychology
Horace Silliman , businessman, philanthropist, namesake of
Silliman University
Howard Townsend , physician and medical professor
William Bell Wait , teacher in the
New York Institute for the Education of the Blind who invented
New York Point , a writing for the blind before
Braille
Literature and journalism
Andy Rooney , Class of 1937
Luke Rhinehart (George Powers Cockcroft), author of
The Dice Man
Gordon Ackerman , journalist, writer, and photographer
Stephen Vincent Benét , poet laureate, two-time winner of the
Pulitzer Prize (1929, 1944)
William Rose Benét , poet laureate, winner of the
Pulitzer Prize (1942)
Christopher Cuomo , Emmy Award-winning television journalist for
CNN
Herman Melville , author of
Moby-Dick
Andy Rooney , author, journalist, and commentator for
60 Minutes
Erik Wemple , journalist for The Washington Post
Isidor Lewi , on editorial board of
New York Tribune
Science and technology
John Bogart , civil engineer and
New York State Engineer and Surveyor
Verplanck Colvin , lawyer, author, illustrator, and topographical engineer involved in the creation of the
Adirondack Park
Benjamin Boss , astronomer and editor of the
Astronomical Journal
Joseph Henry , natural philosopher, telegraphy pioneer, first Curator of the
Smithsonian Institution
Henry Ramsay , civil engineer and
New York State Engineer and Surveyor
Arts, sports, and entertainment
Raymond Castellani , actor, Los Angeles philanthropist
James Carpinello , American film, television, and Broadway actor
Marc Cavosie , professional ice hockey player
Craig Darby , retired NHL ice hockey player
Joseph R. Grismer , Albany-born actor, playwright and theatrical producer
Stephen Hannock , landscape painter
Craig Hatkoff , co-founder of the
Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Film Institute
Ashton Holmes , film and television actor best known for the role of Jack Stall in
A History of Violence
David Holloway ,
American football
linebacker formerly of the
Arizona Cardinals
Andre Jackson Jr. , professional basketball player for the
Milwaukee Bucks
Michael Patrick Jann , director of the film
Drop Dead Gorgeous and actor on
MTV's The State
Kevin Leveille , professional lacrosse player for the
Chicago Machine and the
Chicago Shamrox
Mike Leveille , lacrosse player, 2008
Tewaaraton Trophy winner, member of the
Chicago Machine
Dion Lewis , professional football player for the
New York Giants
Marcus T. Reynolds , architect and author
Merrick Thomson , professional lacrosse player for the
Toronto Nationals and the
Philadelphia Wings
Steve Wulf , executive editor at
ESPN The Magazine
John Wyman , magician and ventriloquist
Military
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. , Class of 1905
Jacob Downing ,
Union Army officer during the
American Civil War , early developer of the city of
Denver .
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ,
U.S. Army
brigadier general and
Medal of Honor recipient
Jeff Sharlet ,
Vietnam Veteran , leader of the GI resistance movement during the
Vietnam War
Charles Dwight Sigsbee , admiral in the
U.S. Navy , captain of the
USS Maine when it exploded, igniting the
Spanish–American War
Frederick Townsend , Union officer in the
American Civil War , Adjutant General of the State of New York
Robert Townsend , Civil War-era U.S. Navy captain commanding the ironclad
USS Essex
Egbert Ludoricus Viele ,
brigadier general in the
Union Army , military governor of
Norfolk, Virginia ;
U.S. Representative from
New York
Theology
Faculty/administration
Noted former faculty and administration include inventors, politicians, and seven
college presidents , including four presidents of
Amherst College :
Headmaster
Merrill Edward Gates
George W. Atherton , president of the
Pennsylvania State University
Simeon Baldwin , Mayor of
New Haven ,
Connecticut ,
U.S. Representative , justice on the Superior Court of Connecticut
Theodric Romeyn Beck ,
forensic medicine pioneer
William Henry Campbell , president of
Rutgers University
John Chester , the second president of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
George Hammell Cook , chemistry, geology professor, vice president of
Rutgers University , director New Jersey Geological Survey
Merrill Edwards Gates , president of
Amherst College and
Rutgers University
Peter Gansevoort , member of the
New York State Assembly and
New York State Senate
Julian Gibbs , president of
Amherst College
Joseph Henry , natural philosopher,
telegraphy pioneer, first curator of the
Smithsonian Institution
Albert Hull , physicist, inventor of the
magnetron and
dynatron
Alexander Meiklejohn , president of
Amherst College , Dean of
Brown University , winner of the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
David Murray ,
American educator and government adviser in
Meiji period
Japan , professor, Rutgers University
George Olds , president of
Amherst College
Charles Emory Smith , U.S. Minister to Russia (1890–1892),
U.S. Postmaster General (1898–1902)
Frederick Townsend , Union officer in the
American Civil War , Adjutant General of the State of New York (1857–1861, 1880)
See also
References
External links
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