Academy Historic District


The Academy Historic District is a historic district in the center of Wilbraham, Massachusetts. Its encompass the historic center of Wilbraham, as well as the historic central portion of the campus of the Wilbraham & Monson Academy. It includes properties on Mountain Road, Main Street, and Faculty Street. Wesleyan Academy was founded in 1817 and moved to Wilbraham in 1824; its oldest buildings date to 1825. It merged with Monson Academy in the 20th century to form the present school that occupies the academic premises. The academy was a major center of Methodist teaching in New England, and was a prominent factor in the town's growth.
The main historic building of the Academy is called the Old Academy, and is a large brick Federalist building designed by Enoch Mudge in 1825. It is a two-story building with a slate roof and a white clapboard belltower. Next to it is Fisk Hall, an 1851 two story building made of brick with sandstone trim; it is topped by a cupola. Binney Hall, built in 1854, is similarly a two-story brick building. The Smith Hall Gymnasium was built in 1896, and has Richardsonian Romanesque details and a hipped slate roof. The Alumni Memorial Chapel stands next to the Gymnasium; it was built in 1867 of red sandstone.
In addition to the academy buildings, the district includes a number of civic and residential buildings, including the Old Meetinghouse, which was originally designed as a meeting hall, but was converted in 1835 into a residential duplex. Adjacent to the Old Meetinghouse, is the Hearse House, an outbuilding that housed the town's hearses from 1890 to 1920. The district also includes a number of residences built mostly in the middle of the 19th century. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.