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The New England cultural emphasis on learning and culture for all people has often expressed itself in the establishment, even during the Colonial period of American history of "academies" for educating the children of New England towns, villages and settlements. This tradition has continued up until the present day, many of these academies still functioning as public schools, while others have become private schools. Ashfield's Sanderson Academy has been in continuous use for close to two hundred years! It nearly died at one time, but was given the boost it needed to revive from a distinguished source, as follows, in the words of the Historical Society.

In 1879, Sanderson Academy had ceased functioning as a school, and was in a state of disrepair. Two summer residents, Charles Eliot Norton (prominent author and educator), and George William Curtis (author and political editor of Harper's Weekly) decided to use a money-raising dinner liberally spiced with speeches to raise funds to reopen Sanderson. The dinners became annual events for 25 years, and received press coverage far and wide. Many of the great orators of the day made appearances in Ashfield. (Mark Twain declined an invitation to speak, replying that "A few years ago I was growing old and rheumatic. But all that is changed now. I am old and rheumatic.")

 

In 1903  the last of these Ashfield dinners was held. It was a relatively peaceful one after the controversies of the years that preceded. Norton himself gave a closing address, in which he thanked his neighbors and friends "for all that you have been to me and have done for me." Norton died in 1908. A plaque honoring Norton was placed in the town hall where it can be seen today.

 

Old Sanderson Academy

In 1989 it again became apparent to townspeople that Ashfield's old Sanderson Academy, which had served so many generations of village children, now needed extensive repairs - but when inquiries were made, the state declared the building to be so outmoded by modern standards as to be unsalvageable. So a splendid (and very expensive!) new one had to be built! Click on the image above of the old school to find out what happened next.

Of course this major change in the location of Ashfield's elementary school left the old building standing unused. And this fact in itself sparked a new and very divisive issue over what should be done with it. Part of the problem to converting it to any other village use - among the proposals being mounted were space for new town offices, multiple use for several community functions, a warehouse for regional crafts products and governmentally-supported housing for the elderly - was that a sizable corner of the building itself rested on land donated to the town for this purpose by the Trust for Sanderson Academy headed by native son Alden Gray, who passionately defended the right of the time-honored Trust to use the entire parcel, including the land beneath the old building, to create a village baseball field and field house. This use would necessitate the demolition of the building, which aroused the equally possionate supporters of one or another of the proposed alternative uses! This controversy raged for several years, as reported by the News and debated in several Town Meetings, without resolution! Ultimately, the supporters of demolition prevailed, and it was torn down.