Bridgton Academy is an all-male college preparatory in Bridgton, Maine. Founded in 1808, the school sits at the northern tip of Long Lake in North Bridgton, Maine. The school has been NEASC accredited since 1934, making it one of the oldest accredited schools in the country. The school is also a member of the National Association of Independent Schools. The campus hosts twenty four different buildings. The majority of classes are held in the new Humanities Center. There are seven dormitories on campus ranging in capacity from 18-40 students. In recent history, the school has expanded its number of two-year students, allowing for students to complete their high school diploma at Bridgton, as well as spending their second, prep, year at the Academy. History Originally chartered when Maine was part of Massachusetts, Bridgton Academy submitted the articles of its incorporation by taking a horse and buggy all the way to Boston in 1806, and welcomed its first class in 1808. What was originally a 4-year, co-ed institution morphed into a boys-only school, and then finally a one-year preparatory school in the 1960s. From "A Brief History of Bridgton Academy" by Ernest N. Stevens (Class of 1899): "Bridgton was incorporated in 1794. It was still a small settlement. In 1800 it had only 646 inhabitants....The settlers in this whole region were chiefly from Massachusetts towns to the north of Boston, such as Andover, Boxford, Rowley and Newbury. They were largely of Puritan stock, of fair education themselves, and genuinely concerned about the education of their children. Within forty years from the original survey of the town and within twelve years of its incorporation they were talking of opening a secondary school. But the way was not easy. Massachusetts, within whose jurisdiction they then lived, would authorize no fly-by-night academies." In 1806, three Bridgton citizens - Samuel Adams, Dr. Samuel Farnsworth and Enoch Perley - set about to raise the funds necessary to incorporate an Academy. The only question after their successful fundraising was where the school was to be located. At a stormy session held by the townsfolk and presided over by three trustees from neighboring academies, it was determined that the school would be located in North Bridgton because "...the natural beauty of the scenery was so great that it seemed that nature itself had designed that there should be a school in North Bridgton." Beginning in 2013 the Bridgton