›› Rockwood Academy

Rockwood Academy was an excellent educational centre for young men in the mid 1800s. Its founder, William Wetherald, taught at local schools for several years before he started his boys’ school on Highway 7, beside Rockwood cemetery and the Friends’ Meeting House.

In 1846 Wetherald bought 47 acres of land from John and Jane Harris and by May 1851 opened his school for boys between 12 and 16 years of age. Teaching was done both in the old log house that previously had been the first Friends’ Meeting House and in a newer milled wood facility. A few other wooden buildings were erected to provide more accommodation.

In 1853 a four-storey Georgian limestone building was constructed to replace the earlier schoolrooms and dormitories, accommodating 50 to 60 pupils as well as William and his family.

The main floor of the Academy was comprised of four large rooms: a library, classroom, living room, and back parlour/dining room. Students’ dining facilities were in the basement, with the kitchen at the back of them. Upstairs William had provided five bedrooms for his large family, a sick room, and two spare rooms for teaching assistants. On the third floor were nine dormitory rooms for students that boarded at the Academy.

In September 1864 Wetherald rented the Academy to headmasters Donald McCaig and Alexander McMillan.

McCaig and McMillan made a formal purchase in 1867. They added commercial courses, a large classroom, extra dormitories, and an unusual stone gymnasium, expanding the school’s space to 140 pupils.

But the days of the Academy were limited when public high schools appeared on government agendas. The special boys’ school was closed in 1884.

---

 

Report by Nancy Meek, circa 1970; courtesy of Bob Love.

Photo courtesy of Deb Quaile. For more information see Eramosa Anecdotes, by Deborah Quaile (Ayton: Wordbird Press, 2007).