Chartered in 1848 with backing from the Universalist Church as the Green Mountain Liberal Institute, this school provided secondary education to men and women ages 15 to 20. Royal Cottle donated land for the “liberal & scientific institute,” and carpenter Otis Wood built the Greek Revival-style building. Students from the area and across the Northeast boarded in nearby homes and attended classes in the sciences, music, art, astronomy, and history, while Greek and Latin were required for a Classical education. In 1869, the school was renamed Green Mountain Perkins Academy in recognition of a bequest by Gaius Perkins, a tanner, shoemaker, and president of the Academy’s board of trustees. Its first graduation in 1854 included ten students, and later classes reached 200, with many graduates going on to colleges such as Tufts and Dartmouth. The school educated future farmers, craftsmen, teachers, physicians, judges, businessmen, a gubernatorial candidate, an assistant secretary of the Navy, and ministers, especially Universalists. Attendance declined with the advent of public high schools, and the Academy closed in 1898. The building later served as the local grange, community hall, and South Woodstock’s historical center and museum, and its interior was preserved much as it appeared in the 1880s with original desks, schoolbooks, maps, and portraits of staff and students.