Shaping Citizen Leaders Since 1763

Welcome to The Governor's Academy, the oldest continuously operating boarding school in America.  Founded in 1763, our school educates students in grades nine through twelve on our beautiful 500-acre campus in Byfield, MA, just 33 miles north of Boston and four miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

Established as Dumm'r Charity School in 1763 through a bequest from Massachusetts Bay Lieutenant Governor William Dummer, what was later called Dummer Academy and then Governor Dummer Academy provided the foundation for the preparatory school tradition in America. As the country's first independent boarding school, the Academy filled a pressing need for enhanced educational opportunities during the Colonial times.

Over the years, the school's name has been entwined with those of many famous people. Paul Revere created the first seal for the school; John Quincy Adams served as secretary to the Board of Trustees; Theophilus Parsons, a Chief Justice of Massachusetts and author of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, attended the Academy; Captain Edward Preble, commander of the USS Constitution and a hero of the Barbary Wars, studied here; Booker T. Washington Jr. starred on the football team in the early 1900s; Yu Kil Chun, a famous social reformer and the first Korean to study in the West, attended our Academy. The list goes on.

Today, just as in the past, we are educating the leaders of tomorrow. Not all will become household names, but they all will be men and women of character and substance, with the motivation and intellectual skills to help guide our society in this new and exciting millennium.

In 2010-2011, our students hail from 22 states and 13 nations.

The Governor's Academy actively seeks a student body that is racially, geographically and socio-economically diverse and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds. The Governor's Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin in admission or in the administration of other school programs.

More than two centuries after its founding, The Governor's Academy continues its tradition of innovation with cutting edge curricula and programs. One might say our school is where tradition meets the future.

Please Note:

For directions to our campus or more information about our region, click here.
To receive Admissions information, click here.
To read TABS Report, The Truth About Boarding School, please click here.