Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/23

 PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY.

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��to these wishes expressed and under- stood, the school has never become a mere sectarian institution. One restric- tion however, is made, i. e. "Prot- estants only shall he in the Trust and in- struction of this seminary."

It is difficult to' ascertain the precise amount of the several endowments. Three times during life the founder made over considerable property to the Trustees. Five years after Dr. Phillips death it appears that the Trustees held $58,880 in active funds, the Mansion house, [now occupied by Dr. Soule] the Academy buildings and grounds. Prob- ably the original endowments amounted to $65,000. In 1872, the amount of funds was $125,000. The academy building being destroyed by fire in December, 1870, is was naturally supposed that a large portion of the fund must be used for the erection of the new edifice. A happy disappointment to such expecta- tions followed; donations for the new building delicately and modestly dropped into the Trustee's hands from members of the Alumni, who respected and rev- erenced the institution as the cradle of their after greatness and prosperity, un- til [with contributions from other bene- ficent sources] the sum swelled to $50,- 000 or enough to complete the new acad- emy building.

The academy building destroyed in 1870 was erected in 1794 with the excep- tion of the "wings" which were afterwards added. The building originally used for the school and now occupied by D. W. Merrill as a dwelling, stood a little dis- tance westward of the present grounds, near the center of the village. It was two stories in height and built after the manner of the "square" houses of those days. When the larger building was erected in 1794, the old structure was purchased by Daniel Kimball and re- moved to the Plains (Kingston road) and fitted into a dwelling house. It has been owned successively by Mr. Kimball, Samuel Leavitt, John Gordon and B. L. Merrill, Esq.

The present building is a handsome and durable Gothic edifice, constructed of the best materials and in the most ap-

��proved style of architecture, if improve- ment can be made on ancient models. The rooms are spacious, commodious and substantially though not gorgeously fur- nished. Paintings and portraits and busts of eminent men, grace, adorn and dignify the Hall, many of which are the contributions of former students.

But whatever has been added within the last few years from the treasures of art to ennoble the soul or gratify an aes- thetic taste, the tone and discipline of the school has never been allowed to suf- fer ; it has rather been elevated and in- tensified and to-day the school occupies a higher level and presents greater advan- tages than ever before. Contrast the Academy and its surroundings with the year of the opening. Then a small building, imperfectly ventilated except through chinks from imperfect carpentry, windows small and without shades and an open fire at one side of the room and insufficient for the wants of half the pu- pils ; now all the modern appliances for light, warmth, comfort and culture. The grounds too, encircled with elms and maples, challenge admiration, whether clothed in vernal beauty or painted in sad but gorgeous autumnal dyes. The town changes are equally surprising. Where once stood low storied dwellings without paint and half sufficient light, with a very few exceptions, we now find private residences, some of which are al- most of princely magnificence. Al- though the population has only doubled, the number of dwellings must have quadrupled. The public buildings are more noble and costly; churches and school-houses handsomer and better and the principal business street, within a few years has, at the hands of the capi- talist and artisan, changed from a sickly row of dilapidated shops to one of stately and substantial brick edifices. Were the land holder and stock holder of. to-day interrogated by a centennarian for the causes, the answer must be "the princi- pal cause is the establishment and growth of Phillips Exeter Academy ; while other enterprises have fluctuated, fled or per- ished with slow decay, this school of learning has endured, striking its roots

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