Concord Academy

Concord Academy (CA) is a coeducational, independent college preparatory school in Concord, Massachusetts that serves both boarding and day students. CA serves around 400 students in grades 9 through 12. Unusually for a boarding school, the majority of CA students attend during the day. Concord Academy, which used to serve grades 1 through 12, opened in September 1922 at what is now Haines House on Main Street. Elsie Garland Hobson was chosen to run the new girls' school, and during her fifteen years in charge, she emphasized academic achievement and ensured that scholarship was honored. Classes throughout those early years were modest. There were three girls in the 1924 class, fifteen in 1938, and twenty in 1948. Concord Academy did not increase significantly in size or earn national prominence until the leadership of Elizabeth Hall (1949–1963). Mrs. Hall transformed the Academy into an independent high school, and the boarding department grew until boarders outnumbered day pupils. Concord Academy was later considered perhaps the best independent secondary school for females in the country during her administration and that of David Aloian (1963–71). Coeducation began in 1971.