Oak Ridge Seminary

Background

The 1st school in the area that would become Gettysburg was at the Mummasburg Road and Carlisle Street intersection on the south side of Stevens Run and by 1835, Gettysburg had 5 common schools. Earlier girls' schools in the Gettysburg borough included one for which Deacon James H. Marsden "took charge" after teacher applications were requested on June 23, 1829. Marsden held classes "from Sept. 25th, 1829, to April 1st, 1830, in the room, later occupied by the late Judge Wills' law office" (the school was moved to a 1 story frame building on the Eagle Hotel lot.)

"Building for a Female School"

Miss Mary McClellan's "private school" in the borough was located in a "small brick building on East High street" land donated by Mary and Catherine Leckey adjoining* the jail near Stratton Street (the street had been "Jail street" in 1823.) An 1830 meeting was held for the bidding contractors and to elect trustees, and incorporation was on April 10, 1838, [sic] under the name Gettysburg Female Academy. The Principal in 1840 was Henry W. Thorp; prices per session ranged from $5 (Junior Department, summer) to $11 (Senior Department, winter); and classes included "Latin; French; History, Ancient, Ecclesiastical, American, and English; Botany, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Geology, &c. &c." The Gettysburg Female Seminary was incorporated on April 14, 1835; in 1842 the "Winter Session" commenced on October 17, and the 1852 teacher was Miss Darling (Samuel Simon Schmucker was president). After the battle, "Miss Mary D. McClellan" resumed "the exercises of her School on the 10th of August", and in 1883, the brick school on High Street was sold.

By the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Rebecca Eyster's Young Ladies Seminary was on the "corner of Washington and High streets" at the "Old Academy Building" built 1813-5 for boys.

Oak Ridge

The Oakridge Seminary was erected by Herman Haupt, later Professor of Mathematics and Engineering at Pennsylvania College (who had built an earlier structure for his residence** on Seminary Ridge.) Located near the 1815 Baltimore and Carlisle turnpike, and the 1838 Tapeworm Railroad bed, Haupt's Oakridge Select Academy was advertised in 1843 for "about 16 pupils", and Rev. William Henry Harrison, D.D., taught there prior to licensure in 1845. The school principal was Miss Carrie Sheads when Early's raids in Pennsylvania arrived at Gettysburg on June 26, 1863, and Oak Ridge Academy was at the July 1 battle area which received Confederate cannon fire. (a captured colonel returned to the school for his sword after escaping from Confederates during their retreat.)