In 1801, the town of Woodstock gave land on the common north of the Meeting House for the first simple Academy building. Founded by the Reverend Eliphalet Lyman, John McClellan, and others of the first ecclesiastical society, the school was among the first Connecticut academies established after the Revolution. A poor regional economy limited its early operation. Patron Henry C. Bowen bought and renovated the Academy in 1843 and erected a boarding house. After the Civil War, Bowen gave a small endowment and formed the Academy Corporation. The present Academy building, which replaced the original in 1873, also resulted from Bowen generosity. In 1888, Ely Ransom Hall, a revered principal, began a twenty-six year tenure that brought reputation and stability. Elmwood Hall, the old boarding house, was destroyed by a 1907 fire. The town of Woodstock preserved the academy system in 1913 by designating the Woodstock Academy as its high school. With campus expansions and amendments to a charter granted by the state of Connecticut in 1802, the academy has developed as a modern facility for local secondary education.