 Constructed as a schoolhouse in 1821, at a cost of $1,200, the Lee Academy was established for the education of young people preparing to continue their studies at college. Originally situated on a knoll at the corner of the Boston Post Road and Neck Road, it was then directly across the street from the home of Captain Frederick Lee, who was the chief proponent of the project to construct a private preparatory school.
Named for Captain Lee, the Academy opened its doors to students in November of 1821. Eighty-two students enrolled for classes in mathematics, English studies, Greek, and Latin. Tuition for each student was $3 for English studies and another $5 for the mathematics and classics courses. Professor Samuel Robinson was the first principal of the school. In 1820, he built a fine home on the Boston Post Road, across from the town green, to serve as his own residence as well as a boardinghouse for students of Lee Academy. Among its first students were children from as far afield as Wethersfield, New York City, and New Orleans.
Built of native timber and topped with a bell tower that held a bell Captain Lee had salvaged from a sunken revenue cutter, the building was constructed with a proviso that it never be moved. A mere ten years after its completion, however, Lee Academy was indeed relocated to the triangle at the western end of the present town green, more central to the village district. In 1839, it was moved again, to a plot opposite the northeast corner of the green, not far from where it now stands, but facing toward the south. In that year, the Center School District purchased the lower floor for use as a district school for pupils in the lower grades. The Academy held its classes on the upper floor. Upon the construction of the Daniel Hand Academy in 1884, the preparatory school closed its doors; Miss Gertrude Nash was its last teacher.
Never quite settled, it seems, however much beloved as one of the town’s most charming and well-known structures, Lee Academy was moved yet again in 1896, when Memorial Hall was constructed. Its new site was at the back of the Hand Academy, in the vicinity of the present gymnasium of the former Academy Elementary School. There its lower floor was continually used for the education of young pupils until 1922, when the Hand Consolidated School opened in the former Daniel Hand Academy building.
In 1923 the Madison Historical Society assumed responsibility for the venerable building, much honored for its one hundred-year history as an institution for the education of Madison youngsters. In that year the building was moved for the fifth time, to its present location at the eastern edge of Meetinghouse Lane, facing westerly toward the green. The town deeded the building to the Madison Historical Society and leased the land beneath it to the society for a period of 99 years.
In recent decades, Lee Academy has served the community in a great many ways. Church groups in need of a home have held worship services here, and the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and other clubs and community organizations used it for meetings. During World War II, the Red Cross had office space here, and for some time Lee Academy served as the headquarters of the Madison Public Health Nursing Association and later as the offices of the Connecticut Society for the Prevention of Blindness.
Today Lee Academy serves as a historical museum used for special exhibitions as well as lectures and meetings. From mid-June through late August, it is open on Saturdays only from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Please see our Calendar (Link) for listings of these special summer exhibition days. From November through May, it is open for a series of educational programs called Lectures at the Lee and for an informal educational lunchtime discussion series called History Bites. Please see our Calendar for these listings or click on Adult Programs for full descriptions and more information.
Credits:
Madison’s Heritage: Historical Sketches of Madison, Connecticut. Edited by Philip S. Platt. Madison, CT: Madison Historical Society, 1964
Madison: Three Hundred Years by the Sea: Farmers and Fisherman; Sailors and Summer Folk. Edited by Stephen P. Elliott. Madison, CT: Madison Bicentennial Committee, 1976
The Green People: A Walking Tour of the Green, Madison, Connecticut. By Warner P. Lord. Madison, CT: Charlotte L. Evarts Memorial Archives, Inc., 2003
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