Middletown Academy - Middletown, DE - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The plaque says, "In 1824 area residents petitioned the general assembly for a lottery to erect a building for education and public worship. Construction of the academy began in 1826 and was completed the next year. For many years the building served as the center of community activities. Previously a private institution, it became a part of the public school system in 1876. The school was closed in 1929. The building was deed in 1945 to the St. Georges Hundred Historical Society, an organization formed to ensure its preservation. In 1960 the property was acquired by the town of Middletown. Since then building has been used for a variety place, the facility has been utilized by a number of municipal agencies and community organizations."

Taken from the guide book, "The old Middletown Academy, W. side of Broad St. near Crawford St., a two-and-one-half story yellow stuccoed brick structure, was erected in 1826 and used, chiefly as a private school for the children of country gentlemen, until it became the district public school in 1876. It ceased to serve as a school building in 1929, when the present Middletown School was built. The building, still owned privately and administered by trustees, is dilapidated; the wooden spire on the belfry points at a crazy angle, and the playground is now high grass where generations of children used to scamper the bare earth during recess from what they called the "Yellow Prison".

-- page 462, Delaware: A Guide to the First State

Book: Delaware Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 462 Year Originally Published: 1938

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/13/2023 Don.Morfe visited it