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Parcel 19
609 Orange Center Road

This two story wood frame structure is distinguished by the Victorian charm of its exterior which is complete with original cupola or belfry. The first Academy was built on the front portion of the present lot after a small parcel of land was sold to the Academy by Benjamin Clark in 1821. (In 1976 during the planting of the Liberty Tree in front of the building, parts of a foundation of stone and brick were found.)

In 1878 a town meeting voted $1500 to build the present building and Benjamin Clark donated a larger parcel to the Town of Orange School Society. The original building was sold to Leverett B. Treat who moved it north near
the present central shopping area, and a larger building was constructed in 1879. (The first building was destroyed by fire in 1885.)

The first floor of the building was used for school society meetings, church and town meetings. The second floor was used as a high school. The building functioned thus until the early 1900s when students were given a choice of attending high schools in surrounding towns.

The building's belfry is empty, and the whereabouts of the original school bell which was mounted there is unknown.
Town records having outgrown the private residence of the town clerk, that office was moved in the Academy building in the late 1940s. The Town Court met on the second floor. Other town offices and functions moved in as the need arose. Additions were made to the rear of the building, and a vault for record storage was also built. Administrative use by the town continued until 1967 when the new Town Hall was built. The Academy building was taken over by the Board of Education for its administrative and executive use.

The name used for this building varies, from "The Academy" of early times to the present day "Board of Ed. Building". The deed for the land for the original building was recorded on April 14, 1821, Vol. 28, Milford, Page 167.
"I, Benjamin Clark,....for $30.00 cash full satisfaction of Erastus Scranton, David Treat, Jonah Treat and other proprietors in The Academy, do give, grant, to unto said grantees, joint proprietors and owners in said Academy, the land or ground on which it now stands being about 24 feet long and 18 broad; and also, so much ground more as is needful and convenient on every side of it to paint it and to make repairs and if need be, erect an other in its stead - said building being north of my house and south and easterly of the meeting house in this place and was built in the year 1812 to be used for an academical school, for a common district school, for religious and public meetings and no other."