Presbyterian minister Hugh Stewart Fullerton asked his congregation in 1841 whether they should form an academy to provide better educational advantages to the young citizens of that remote community. Predating the founding of South Salem, Salem Academy was built and opened in 1842, with stone from a quarry south of Greenfield. Its primary purpose was to prepare ministers and teachers for the West. Professor J. A. Lowes served as principal during the academy’s "golden age" from 1848 to 1858. The Chillicothe Presbytery controlled Salem Academy from 1859 to 1907, when it functioned as a junior college whose students went on to other institutions after a two-year term. Attendance dropped significantly during the Civil War as many students served in the Union Army. By the time the academy closed in 1907, more than 1,500 students, including three U.S. congressmen and Governor Joseph B. Foraker, had received instruction there. It later served as a community building and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.