Pinkerton's original building takes state history honor
Feb. 12—DERRY — Pinkerton Academy's original building that opened over 200 years ago to teach the area's students is among a list of six state landmarks being named to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places.
Pinkerton's Old Academy Building opened in 1815 and was one of the first secondary schools in the state, according to a press release, and is a well-preserved example of Federal-style architecture.
The building was altered in 1828 when a Greek Revival-style front pavilion and a cupola were added. But the interior remains a tribute to those original years of teaching children with wood floors, high ceilings, and a lot of history and archives still stored there.
The newest list came after nominations were received by the state's Register of Historic Places, with each being researched for historical significance.
In the book "Pinkerton Academy — 1814-1964" by Carl Cheswell Forsaith, the original building was planned and built by crews of men and boys "armed with pike poles and at the command of the master carpenter, they walked the first wall into position" and worked to complete that first school building to ready for Pinkerton's official opening day and its first class of 71 students representing towns all over the area.
Last fall, Pinkerton received another history honor from the state with officials unveiling a state highway marker on campus to pay tribute to the school's long-standing tradition in the community.
The marker has two sides engraved with information about Pinkerton, including the school being incorporated in 1814 and founded "for the purpose of promoting piety and virtue and for the education of youth."
The marker also names notable Pinkerton teachers and graduates including poet Robert Frost who taught English at Pinkerton; Alan B. Shepard Jr., a member of the Pinkerton class of 1940 and first American in space; Brian Thacker, a Vietnam veteran and member of the class of 1963 who received the Congressional Medal of Honor, and Tricia Dunn, class of 1992, who won a gold medal for ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics.
The Pinkerton Old Academy building is joined on the new state Register of Historic Places list by the Lee Library, first built as a schoolhouse in 1897; Plymouth's Lower Intervale Grange #321, built by local farmers in 1912; The Old Stratham Town Hall, built in 1877; the Wolfeboro Freight shed, built around 1871 and playing an important role in the town's industrial and tourism efforts, and the Lady of the Fairways Shrine in Bethlehem, built in 1958 as a tribute to generations of golf caddies who attended caddy camps in New England.
