This school, one of the finest of the early Georgia academies, was chartered by the legislature on Dec. 26, 1826. Its first trustees were Archibald Gresham, R. Q. Dickinson, Wylie Womack, Hermon Mercer, and Leonidas B. Mercer. Among its first masters were William D. Cowdrey and Simpson Fouche, outstanding classical scholars. Its name was officially changed to Stephens High School in 1886 to honor Alexander Stephens, and a new building was erected. That building burned in 1907 and was replaced by another. In 1920 it became Alexander Stephens Institute, a county high school. In 1955 the school moved to a new site.