During restorations at the historic Academy Building at the University of Southern Maine, construction workers recovered dozens of letters and drawings from students who attended high school in the building nearly 200 years ago.
University of Southern MaineThe full collection of notes and doodles discovered in the walls of the former high school.
Nearly 200 years ago, students at a private high school in Gorham, Maine, recorded small moments of their lives in handwritten notes and sketches, offering a peek into the teens’ budding romances, personal passions, and frustrations with teachers. Now, their messages have been rediscovered by construction workers carrying out restorations on the building where the teens once attended class.
The high school became part of the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus in 1878, and today, the structure serves as a studio for art students at the college. Recent renovations to restore the Academy Building to its former glory revealed the trove of papers stashed behind its walls, and now the university is working to carefully preserve these glimpses into its past.
A Restoration Project Reveals Forgotten Pieces Of Maine’s History
The University of Southern Maine’s Academy Building first opened as a private high school in 1806. Students flocked to the institution from far and wide due to its reputation as a competitive and enriching educational facility.
In 1878, the building was acquired by the University of Southern Maine. Today, it is referred to as the Academy Building and serves as an art studio for students on the college’s Gorham campus.
University of Southern MaineThe Academy Building, originally constructed in 1806, on the grounds of the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus.
Because of its age, the structure has recently undergone a series of renovations that began in 2022. While removing rotted wooden walls and floorboards, construction crews discovered a large collection of notes, doodles, and other messages dating back to the Academy Building’s early history as a private high school. According to a press release from the university, the papers were hidden in a gap in the wooden panels next to a stairway.
So far, workers have recovered dozens of notes and sent them over to the university’s special collections experts for analysis.
What Did Teenagers Write About 200 Years Ago?
University of Southern MaineA student’s note discussing their admiration of apple blossoms.
The collection of papers recovered from the school’s walls has revealed fascinating details about students’ daily lives and romances. Among class notes littered with math equations, grammar lessons, and to-do lists, there are unflattering doodles of teachers, confessions of love, and details about secret rendezvous.
“Some of them are sums, calculations, and lists. Things that you would expect. But, there’s also really funny caricatures of teachers, sort of focusing on prominent features like big noses,” Dr. Libby Bischof, a historian at the university, told local news outlet WMTW. “This is sort of like the text message or the Snapchat that they’re sending in the middle of class, that they shouldn’t be.”
University of Southern MaineA caricature of a school teacher with exaggerated features.
Among some of the letters are requests such as “Ada, would’nt you like to swing after school” or “Should we take a walk?” Others document students’ love for everyday things, like apple blossoms.
Many of the notes are illegible due to their age, but the university’s special collections employees hope that digitizing them may better reveal their contents. For now, the papers have been carefully preserved, and students should soon be able to access this captivating part of the school’s early history.
After reading about the 200-year-old notes found in the walls of an old high school in Maine, dive into the history of Pompeii’s raunchy graffiti. Then, read about the chilling Circleville letters that were sent to the residents of a small Ohio town and exposed their darkest secrets.
