
The Enigma Of Notes Discovered Under A U.S. High School That Date Back 150 Years…
Maine is a New England state known for its beautiful coastline and scenic landscapes. Whether you plan to take a weekend getaway to one of Maine’s amazing small towns, visit New England’s largest waterfall, or enjoy the best winter sights in one of Maine’s most underrated towns, this state has something for every traveler.
Beyond its small and underrated towns, Maine is also home to some intriguing historical and archaeological discoveries you probably never knew existed in New England. These discoveries have provided rare glimpses into what life was like in the past.
One of these discoveries has recently come into the spotlight. In 2022, a rare collection of 150-year-old handwritten notes was unearthed from the floorboards of the Academy Building at the University of Southern Maine (USM).
These preserved notes, which consisted of drawings, gossip, and even love letters, offered a look into students’ lives over a century ago when the building served as a high school. In this article, we’ll explore the history of the notes and how they were found.
The History Of The University Of Southern Maine Academy Building
The Academy Building was built in 1806 as Gorham Academy, an upper-class preparatory school for the children of Maine’s wealthy families. The school, which taught students aged 10 to 17, started as an all-boys institution but eventually invited girls to enroll. Gorham Academy closed its doors in 1877 due to declining enrollment, but the building remained in use.
Within a few years of Gorham Academy’s closing, Maine built Gorham Normal School, a post-secondary teacher training center, on the land surrounding the Academy Building. Because students and staff often used the Academy Building as an overflow space, it was renovated and became an official part of Gorham Normal School in 1909.
In 1970, Gorham State College of the University of Maine (formerly Gorham Normal School) merged with the University of Maine, Portland, to become the University of Southern Maine. The Academy Building remains one of the oldest structures on the university’s campus.
How The 150-Year-Old Notes Were Found
In 2022, a renovation project led preservation contractor Lee Hoagland to discover the 150-year-old notes in the Academy Building.
While repairing the building’s floorboards, Hoagland uncovered a gap between the first and second floors that had been closed. Inside the gap were hundreds of notes written on crumpled and folded paper.
After gathering the notes, history professor and executive director of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, Dr. Libby Bischof, determined which ones to study.
The well-preserved notes are important to the Academy Building’s history. They also provided Dr. Bischof with a rare glimpse into the lives of schoolchildren in the 19th century.