Germantown Academy

Germantown Academy, informally known as GA and originally known as the Union School, is the oldest nonsectarian day school in the United States. The school was founded on December 6, 1759, by a group of prominent Germantown citizens in the Green Tree Tavern on the Germantown Road. Germantown Academy enrolls students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade and is located in the Philadelphia suburb of Fort Washington, having moved from its original Germantown campus in 1965. The original campus (see Old Germantown Academy and Headmasters' Houses) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The school shares the oldest continuous high school football rivalry with the William Penn Charter School. History Early years The Union School was founded on the evening of December 6, 1759, at the Green Tree Tavern on Germantown Avenue. The school was founded by prominent members of the Germantown community who wished to provide a country school for their children. As some of the founders and residents of Germantown were of German descent, it was decided that the school be opened with both English and German speaking departments. The founders chose David James Dove to head the English department and Hilarius Becker of Bernheim, Germany, to head the German school. In 1761, land was given to the school by trustee Charles Bensell, and a schoolhouse with its iconic belfry was constructed. The school found itself in the crossroads of early American history. In 1777, the Battle of Germantown was fought on the front lawn of trustee Benjamin Chew at his home Cliveden less than a mile from campus. During the American Revolution, the school served as a hospital and camp for British soldiers. Legend says that the British officers played the first game of cricket in America on the Academy's front lawn. After the war, the school was visited by President George Washington. Washington sent his adopted step-grandson George Washington Parke Custis to the Academy during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. The school was visited by the Marquis de Lafayette on his 1825 visit to America and hosted Fernando, the adopted son of South American liberator Simón Bolívar. In 1830, Amos Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May Alcott, was appointed headmaster and attempts were made to co-educate the school but were quickly abandoned.