In the years following the Civil War, Darnestown repaired wartime damage and returned to daily livelihoods. Andrew Small, a C&O Canal contractor who became familiar with Darnestown during his career, bequeathed $35,000 to the community in 1867 on his deathbed to construct a school. His gift founded the Andrew Small Academy, one of the few accredited college preparatory schools in Montgomery County and a rarity for a rural area before the public school system was created. The Academy building was constructed in 1869 southeast of the Darnestown Presbyterian Church and soon attracted pupils from outside the community. Its third floor housed boarding students, while day students from Darnestown and neighboring communities also attended. The academy also served as a cultural center, hosting plays, concerts, recitals, and a literary society. After the Academy closed in 1907, the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners of Public Schools used the building as a high school until 1927, when it became an elementary school. The building was demolished in 1955 and replaced by the existing Darnestown Elementary School, which stands only a few hundred feet from the academy’s former location. Children learned the alphabet, expanded their vocabulary, and did daily spelling slate work using the McGuffey Reader, the most popular American textbook in the 19th century.