# The Albany Academy

Albany Academy is an independent college preparatory day school in Albany, New York. It enrolls students from Prekindergaten (age 4) to Grade 12. It was established in 1813 by a charter signed by Mayor Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer and the city council of Albany. In July 2007, the once separate Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls merged into The Albany Academies. In 2024, the school launched a unifying brand effort as "Albany Academy."

## History

The Albany Academy is the oldest day school for boys in New York state's Capital Region. The Academy was chartered in March 1813 to educate the sons of Albany's political elite and rapidly growing merchant class. In the Census three years prior, Albany was the tenth-largest city in the United States, and would remain so through the 1850s due to the prominence of the Erie Canal.
Classes began within months after the charter was granted, offering a college preparatory track including intensive study of Ancient Greek, and Latin and an arithmetic-based track to prepare young men for Albany's role as a center of commerce. Two years later, in 1815, a purpose-built building was completed in present-day Academy Park, adjacent to the New York State Capitol. The Federal-style building, now known as the Old Albany Academy Building and headquarters of the City School District of Albany, was designed by renowned Albany architect Philip Hooker. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1870, in response to a lack of military preparation institutions in the north during the American Civil War, the Albany Academy adopted the Battalion Leadership Program, instructing the "cadets" in military procedure and the art of leadership. In 2005, the school ended compulsory involvement in the program in favor of a House-based leadership program commonly found in English preparatory schools.
In 1931, the school moved from its original downtown building in present-day Academy Park to its current location on the corner of Hackett Boulevard and Academy Road, in the University Heights section of Albany. Designed by Marcus T. Reynolds in the neo-Georgian style, the building incorporates many elements of the Old Academy building, namely the main entryway and cupola. The school stands approximately two miles from the city center. The red-brick Academy building's marble cornerstone was laid by the then-governor of New York and future president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 2005, The Albany Academy ended its longstanding Army JROTC program.
In July 2007, the board of trustees announced that The Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls would merge into The Albany Academies.

## Accreditation and memberships

The Albany Academies are accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools and recognized by the Regents of the State of New York.

## Alumni
### Government, law, business, and public policy

* William Barnes Jr., chairman of the New York Republican State Committee and member of the Republican National Committee
* T. Garry Buckley, 72nd Lieutenant Governor of Vermont.
* John W. Causey, United States Representative from Delaware
* Norton Chase, New York State Assemblyman and New York State Senator
* E. Harold Cluett, U.S. Representative from New York
* Andrew J. Colvin, district attorney of Albany County and New York State Senator
* Edwin Corning, businessman, Lieutenant Governor of New York
* Edwin Corning Jr., member of the New York State Assembly
* Erastus Corning 2nd, Mayor of Albany from 1942 to 1983
* Parker Corning, U.S. Representative from New York
* Frederick A. Conkling, U.S. Representative from New York
* Learned Hand, justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, regarded as the most influential American jurist never to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States
* Francis Hendricks, Mayor of Syracuse and president of the State Bank of Syracuse.
* Abraham Lansing, lawyer, New York State Treasurer, and New York State Senator
* James Campbell Matthews, attorney and judge, New York's first African-American law school graduate
* Roger McNamee, venture capital and private equity investor, founder of Elevation Partners and Silver Lake Partners
* Peter P. Murphy, physician and politician
* Stephen P. Nash, lawyer, president of the New York City Bar Association
* Frederic P. Olcott, banker, stock broker, and New York State Comptroller
* Rufus Wheeler Peckham, Class of 1855 Rufus Wheeler Peckham, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on the Supreme Court of the United States (1895–1909)
* Wheeler Hazard Peckham, lawyer, U.S. Supreme Court nominee
* John V. L. Pruyn, U.S. Representative from New York
* William Gorham Rice, New York state government official, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner
* Henry M. Sage, New York State Assemblyman and New York State Senator
* Charles Emory Smith, U.S. Minister to Russia (1890–1892), U.S. Postmaster General (1898–1902)
* Phillip Steck, Democratic member of the New York State Assembly
* Peter G. Ten Eyck, U.S. Representative from New York
* John Boyd Thacher II, Mayor of Albany from 1926 to 1941
* Ralph W. Thomas, New York State Senator
* Charles Tracey, U.S. Representative from New York
* Chauncey Vibbard, organizer of the New York Central Railroad and U.S. Representative from New York
* Henry Waldron, U.S. Representative from Michigan
* Charles W. van Rensselaer first officer and paymaster aboard the SS Central America when it was lost during a hurricane in September 1857

### Medicine and academia

* John Seiler Brubacher, author, educational philosopher, Yale University professor
* Andrew Sloan Draper, jurist, author, and president of the University of Illinois
* William Durden, president of Dickinson College
* Julian Gibbs, president of Amherst College
* Henry Hun, physician and professor of nervous diseases at the Albany Medical College
* Jesse Montgomery Mosher, physician credited with establishing the first psychiatric ward within the organization of a general hospital
* Stewart Myers, Robert C. Merton Professor of Financial Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management, coined the term real option
* Douglas M. North, president of Alaska Pacific University and Prescott College, and head of school of The Albany Academies
* Martin Seligman, psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania known for his work on learned helplessness and positive psychology
* Horace Silliman, businessman, philanthropist, namesake of Silliman University
* Howard Townsend, physician and medical professor
* William Bell Wait, teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind who invented New York Point, a writing for the blind before Braille

### Literature and journalism

* Luke Rhinehart (George Powers Cockcroft), author of The Dice Man
* Gordon Ackerman, journalist, writer, and photographer
* Stephen Vincent Benét, poet laureate, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1929, 1944)
* William Rose Benét, poet laureate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1942)
* Christopher Cuomo, Emmy Award-winning television journalist for CNN
* Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick
* Andy Rooney, author, journalist, and commentator for 60 Minutes
* Erik Wemple, journalist for The Washington Post
* Isidor Lewi, on editorial board of New York Tribune

### Science and technology

* John Bogart, civil engineer and New York State Engineer and Surveyor
* Verplanck Colvin, lawyer, author, illustrator, and topographical engineer involved in the creation of the Adirondack Park
* Benjamin Boss, astronomer and editor of the Astronomical Journal
* Joseph Henry, natural philosopher, telegraphy pioneer, first Curator of the Smithsonian Institution
* Henry Ramsay, civil engineer and New York State Engineer and Surveyor

### Arts, sports, and entertainment

* Janek Ambros, American film director
* Raymond Castellani, actor, Los Angeles philanthropist
* James Carpinello, American film, television, and Broadway actor
* Marc Cavosie, professional ice hockey player
* Craig Darby, retired NHL ice hockey player
* Joseph R. Grismer, Albany-born actor, playwright and theatrical producer
* Stephen Hannock, landscape painter
* Craig Hatkoff, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Film Institute
* Ashton Holmes, film and television actor best known for the role of Jack Stall in A History of Violence
* David Holloway, American football linebacker formerly of the Arizona Cardinals
* Andre Jackson Jr., professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks
* Michael Patrick Jann, director of the film Drop Dead Gorgeous and actor on MTV's The State
* Kevin Leveille, professional lacrosse player for the Chicago Machine and the Chicago Shamrox
* Mike Leveille, lacrosse player, 2008 Tewaaraton Trophy winner, member of the Chicago Machine
* Dion Lewis, professional football player for the New York Giants
* Marcus T. Reynolds, architect and author
* Merrick Thomson, professional lacrosse player for the Toronto Nationals and the Philadelphia Wings
* Steve Wulf, executive editor at ESPN The Magazine
* John Wyman, magician and ventriloquist

### Military

* Jacob Downing, Union Army officer during the American Civil War, early developer of the city of Denver.
* Theodore Roosevelt Jr., U.S. Army brigadier general and Medal of Honor recipient
* Jeff Sharlet, Vietnam Veteran, leader of the GI resistance movement during the Vietnam War
* Charles Dwight Sigsbee, admiral in the U.S. Navy, captain of the USS Maine when it exploded, igniting the Spanish–American War
* Frederick Townsend, Union officer in the American Civil War, Adjutant General of the State of New York
* Robert Townsend, Civil War-era U.S. Navy captain commanding the ironclad USS Essex
* Egbert Ludoricus Viele, brigadier general in the Union Army, military governor of Norfolk, Virginia; U.S. Representative from New York

### Theology

* Alphonsus J. Donlon, Roman Catholic priest and President of Georgetown University
* Angus Dun, 4th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington in Washington, DC
* John Loughlin, 1st Bishop of Brooklyn, New York (1853–1891)
* Clarence A. Walworth, attorney, writer, Roman Catholic priest, and missionary

## Faculty/administration

Noted former faculty and administration include inventors, politicians, and seven college presidents, including four presidents of Amherst College:
* George W. Atherton, president of the Pennsylvania State University
* Simeon Baldwin, Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. Representative, justice on the Superior Court of Connecticut
* Theodric Romeyn Beck, forensic medicine pioneer
* William Henry Campbell, president of Rutgers University
* John Chester, the second president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
* George Hammell Cook, chemistry, geology professor, vice president of Rutgers University, director New Jersey Geological Survey
* Merrill Edwards Gates, president of Amherst College and Rutgers University
* Peter Gansevoort, member of the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate
* Julian Gibbs, president of Amherst College
* Joseph Henry, natural philosopher, telegraphy pioneer, first curator of the Smithsonian Institution
* Albert Hull, physicist, inventor of the magnetron and dynatron
* Alexander Meiklejohn, president of Amherst College, Dean of Brown University, winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
* David Murray, American educator and government adviser in Meiji period Japan, professor, Rutgers University
* George Olds, president of Amherst College
* Charles Emory Smith, U.S. Minister to Russia (1890–1892), U.S. Postmaster General (1898–1902)
* Frederick Townsend, Union officer in the American Civil War, Adjutant General of the State of New York (1857–1861, 1880)