Pinkerton Academy - Derry NH
Pinkerton Academy, located in Derry, New Hampshire, is New England's second-largest high school with well over 3000 students enrolled. Second in capacity only to Brockton High School in Massachusetts, Pinkerton Academy educates not only Derry students, but also high-school age children in the neighboring towns of Chester, Auburn and Hampstead. The focal point of Pinkerton's sprawling 170-acre campus is the eight-acre main campus where most of the academic classes are held. These buildings include the Pinkerton and Shepard Buildings, the Frost English Wing, the Ek Science Building, the Hackler Gymnasium, the Arts & Humanities Building, The Saltmarsh Library, the Low Vocational Building and the Pinkerton Field House. Other buildings scattered throughout the campus include the Green House, the Sugar House, the Alumni Building (the original Pinkerton School Building) and several others. Ninety-five acres of the school's campus is used for athletics, farmland and faculty housing.
In 1793, a high school was created in what was then eastern Londonderry. The school was maintained over the years by, in addition to taxes and tuitions, donations from local benefactors. The Reverend Edward Parker, in 1814, requested from two of the largest contributors, Major John Pinkerton and his father, Elder James Pinkerton, to make the school a permanent one. Later in the year the state legislature incorporated the school with the name Pinkerton Academy in honor of the two men. With a $16,000 endowment from Major Pinkerton "for the purpose of promoting piety and virtue and the education of youth in science, languages and the liberal arts", the academy formally opened in 1815 as a "boys only" school and remained that way until the academy became co-ed in 1853 with the construction of the Ladies Boarding Hall. Upon Major Pinkerton's death in 1881, he bestowed additional funds to the academy which were used to add new instructors, a new library and the eventual construction of the Pinkerton Building. This, and changing views on education, allowed the curriculum to provide for educational programs aimed at college bound and non-college bound students alike.
The academy remained an independent day school/boarding school until, in 1949, it entered into a service contract with the town of Derry, New Hampshire to act as the town's official high school. Derry agreed to pay for their high school students' educations on a tuition basis that has lasted nearly sixty years. Although Pinkerton Academy maintains its private school status, it also educates Chester, Auburn and Hampstead students on a tuition basis. Pinkerton continues to offer its well-known preparatory college programs but also teaches students with a well-rounded course selection and low teacher/student ratio.
Pinkerton Academy is located very near the center of Derry. Derry is situated in southern New Hampshire's Rockingham County. Convenient to most everywhere, Derry has a lot to offer the new or growing family. If you're interested in Derry, NH or any other New Hampshire community, please call Jim Miller Bean Group at (603) 801-3987. From affordable homes to luxurious estates, the southern NH MLS listings are full of properties just waiting to be viewed by you. Call us today for more information about this beautiful state and why you should live here.
Jim Miller is a full time full service licensed Realtor® in the Southern New Hampshire area with Bean Group and has many years of experience buying and selling New Hampshire Real Estate
Contact Jim direct at 603-801-3987
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