Founded in 1833, Strafford Union Academy served as a private secondary school in a building now known as Austin Hall. In 1848, it became Strafford Seminary, educating local students and serving as a seminary for the Free Will Baptist denomination. In 1866, the school was renamed Austin Academy for benefactor the Rev. Daniel Austin of Portsmouth, and its association with the Free Will Baptists ended in 1881. In 1903, the school moved to its hillside campus. After visiting the campus of the private boarding and day school Austin Academy, shoe manufacturer George Cate donated funds to expand it, and following his death the school was renamed Austin-Cate Academy. After fires destroyed several structures, architect J. Edward Richardson designed new brick buildings in the 1930s. Attendance by Strafford students declined steadily in the late 1960s, and by the mid-1970s the school was a private boarding school with very few day students before closing in 1981.