Western Reserve Academy: History


Figure 1.-- This detail from a WRA class photograph is undated, but it must come from the 1880s or 90s. A number of the boys look to be about 16 or 17 years old meaning they were in the secindary school program. The presence of girls, however, suggests that some of classes of preparatory boys and college students at the time were mixed. This was not very common at the time. Note the stiff white standing collars attached to shirts with collar pins and the close-fitting, formal suits. Some of the younger boys were probably wearing knee trousers with black long stockings by the 1890s.

Western Reserve Academy is one of the earliest private schools in the Midwest. It was founded in 1826 in Hudson, Ohio as a boarding school for boys. This was very early in the settlement of Ohio. The school gradually expanded to offer a college (university level) program. The school in the 19th century offered both secondary and college-level prograns for teenage boys and youth as part of a single institution. Some girls wwre also involved, but we do not yet understand how they fit into the program. Towards the end of the 19th century the two programs were separated. The college program (now Case Western Reserve University) was moved to Cleveland, leaving the preparatory school for boys in Hudson. We donot know much about the early school, but the secondary school program by the turn-of-the 20th century was operating much like a British public (exclusive private secondary) school. In America it would be called a preparatory school.








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Created: 7:15 AM 3/6/2011
Last updated: 7:15 AM 3/6/2011