The Coburn Classical Institute was a college preparatory school in
Waterville,
Maine
Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...
, which operated from 1828–1970.
Waterville Academy
In its early years, Waterville College (now
Colby College
Colby College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the ...
) had maintained a
Latin school
The Latin school was the grammar school of 14th- to 19th-century Europe, though the latter term was much more common in England. Emphasis was placed, as the name indicates, on learning to use Latin. The education given at Latin schools gave gre ...
in the college buildings. Around 1828, the college trustees wanted a classical academy to prepare boys for entrance to the college. Land was donated by Hon. Timothy Boutelle, and funds raised by the college president
Jeremiah Chaplin, for a small brick building in which the school went into operation in the fall of 1829. The school was under the charge of Henry W. Paine, then a member of the senior class at the college. Regarded as an appendage to the college, no act of incorporation was sought. There were 61 students in the school's first year.
For about two years, 1839 and 1840, Waterville Academy was closed. The school re-opened in 1841, and in 1842 the trustees of Waterville College incorporated the school separately and passed control to a new board of trustees. Girls were admitted to the school beginning in 1845, and in 1865, the school was renamed the Waterville Classical Institute.
Waterville Classical Institute
In 1868, a
Bachelor of Letters Bachelor of Letters (BLitt or LittB; Latin ' or ') is a second undergraduate university degree in which students specialize in an area of study relevant to their own personal, professional, or academic development. This area of study may have been t ...
degree was first awarded to women. Around 1874,
Abner Coburn pledged $50,000 to the endowment of the school, on the condition that $50,000 also be raised to support two other institutes proposed by the college (called at the time Colby University). In 1882, Coburn erected a new building for school at an additional expense of $38,000, and the school got its final name — Coburn Classical Institute.
Coburn Classical Institute
An observatory dome was added to the school in 1889, with an
Alvan Clark & Sons
Alvan Clark & Sons was an American maker of optics that became famous for crafting lenses for some of the largest refracting telescopes of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1846 in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, by Alvan Clark (1804&nd ...
equatorial telescope.
Modern
In 1970 the school merged with the Oak Grove School in
Vassalboro, Maine
Vassalboro (originally Vassalborough) is a town in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,520 at the 2020 census. Vassalboro includes the villages of Riverside, Getchell's Corner, North Vassalboro, and East Vassalboro, home t ...
, which was renamed the
Oak Grove Coburn School and closed in 1989. In 1990, the State of Maine purchased the Vassalboro campus and turned it into the ''State of Maine Criminal Justice Academy'', a
police academy
A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or ot ...
which trains all law enforcement officers, state, county and municipal, who have the power of arrest and the authority to carry a firearm in the State of Maine.
People
Principals
Notable alumni
*
Obadiah Gardner
Obadiah Gardner (September 13, 1852July 24, 1938) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. Gardner was a businessman and member of the Democratic Party who served in several minor state executive positions before serving in the U ...
*
Asher Hinds
*
Edwin Francis Lyford
Edwin Francis Lyford (September 8, 1857 – October 15, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician who served on the Springfield, Massachusetts, city council, as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and in the Massachusetts ...
*
Marston Morse
Harold Calvin Marston Morse (March 24, 1892 – June 22, 1977) was an American mathematician best known for his work on the ''calculus of variations in the large'', a subject where he introduced the technique of differential topology now known a ...
*
Jane Maria Read
Jane Maria Read (October 4, 1853 – ?) was an American poet and teacher.
Early life and education
Jane Maria Read was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, October 4, 1853. She was the daughter of William and Susan Maritta (Austin) Read. Her father ...
Clyde Sukeforth, enrolled 1916. Major and minor league baseball player, manager and scout, instrumental in getting Jackie Robinson in the league for manager Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Society for American Baseball Research.
Louise Helen Coburn, 1873 A.B.
[Coburn, Louise H,. Skowhegan on the Kennebec, Skowhegan, ME 1941]
Notable faculty
*
Elijah Parish Lovejoy
Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist. Following his murder by a mob, he became a martyr to the abolitionist cause opposing slavery ...
(Headmaster; 1824–1826)
*
Ginger Fraser
Paul F. "Ginger" Fraser (November 15, 1892 – April 11, 1938) was an American football player, coach, and military officer. He was considered to be one of Maine's all-time greatest college football players.
Early life
Fraser was born in Boston's ...
(Athletic director; 1919–1921)
References
Boarding schools in Maine
Schools in Kennebec County, Maine
Private high schools in Maine
Preparatory schools in Maine
Education in Waterville, Maine
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