Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Arts & Culture, Education

Location

290 NY-203, Chatham, NY 12037, USA

Lat/Long

42.321997, -73.543791

Grant Recipient

Austerlitz Historical Society

In 1845, Reverend Timothy Woodbridge (1787- 1862) founded the Spencertown Academy in Columbia County, New York. The trustees of the school contracted local builder Benjamin Ambler to construct the building for $2,400 and it was erected in 1847. The school held primary and secondary classes for girls and boys, along with offering teacher training. An 1858 catalog for the Spencertown Academy noted that tuition was charged at $35 per term. Rev. Woodbridge was the first president of the school and served in this role until his death on December 7, 1862.

In his 1856 Autobiography of a Blind Minister, Rev. Woodbridge, who had lost his eyesight as a young man, stated:

“Our academy has been a flourishing and useful institution, and has imparted a good and somewhat liberal education to numerous youths of box sexes, who would otherwise have been deprived of that blessing. It is hardly possible to estimate the beneficial influence of such an institution. The development and culture of a single mind has, in some cases, shot an influence around the globe.”

In 1871, the Spencertown Academy became a public school, after area school districts consolidated into a Union Free School District. Eventually joining the Chatham Central School District, classes were continually held here until the school closed in 1970. Shortly after this, the building became home to a community arts center in 1972. As of 2022, the building remains home to the Spencertown Academy Arts Center, whose mission is “dedicated to building community through the arts, supporting education for all ages, and providing a welcoming space for presentations in the arts and humanities for Columbia County and its neighbors.”

Links

• Spencertown Academy Arts Center