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"Albany Academy" redirects here. For other uses, see Albany Academy (disambiguation).
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The Albany Academy
Honor Integritas Officium
Honor, Integrity, Service
Address
135 Academy Road
Albany, New York, 12208
United States
Information
Type Private, College-prep, Day
Established 1813; 211 years ago (1813)
Sister school Albany Academy for Girls
CEEB Code 330035
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)
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

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

Albany Academy 1907
The Old Academy Building, now the Joseph Henry Memorial
Albany Academy Cupola
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.

Albany Academy
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

LearnedHand1910a
Learned Hand, Class of 1889

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 (cropped)
Andy Rooney, Class of 1937

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

Ted Cane France
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., Class of 1905

Theology

  • Alphonsus J. Donlon, Roman Catholic priest and President of Georgetown University
  • Angus Dun, 4th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington in Washington, DC
  • John Loughlin, 1st Bishop of Brooklyn, New York (1853–1891)
  • Clarence A. Walworth, attorney, writer, Roman Catholic priest, and missionary

Faculty/administration

Noted former faculty and administration include inventors, politicians, and seven college presidents, including four presidents of Amherst College:

Merrill Edwards Gates
Headmaster Merrill Edward Gates

See also

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