The Augusta Military Academy was a secondary education military academy in Fort Defiance, Virginia, United States. The school was established in 1865 by Confederate veteran Charles Summerville Roller as the Augusta Male Academy and formally became a military academy in 1880. It combined classical studies with a military curriculum and was officially named Augusta Military Academy in 1890. At the time, it was one of the first military preparatory schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was among one of the first such schools in the United States to adopt the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program in 1919.
Until its closure in 1984, the Academy had attracted over 7,000 students from the United States and abroad. Today it is owned and operated as a campground for the Virginia District of the United Pentecostal Church International. It is located on U.S. Route 11, also known as the Lee Highway.
The Main Barracks was built in 1915, and is a three-story, rectangular structure constructed of rough stuccoed walls above a limestone-faced first story in the tower. It features an off-center, four-story entrance tower. The Mess Hall/Library/Deanes Castle Dormitory was built in 1879 as the residence for founder Charles Summerville Roller. It is the two-story, double-pile, frame building sheathed in German siding and covered by a hipped, slate shingle roof. The neo-Gothic style Gymnasium/Academic Hall consists of three sections: the original gymnasium built in 1910 and the present Gymnasium built in 1929, connected by a swimming pool.
Each year, the Augusta Military Academy Museum hosts an alumni gathering. Among its notable alumni are William H. Armstrong, the author of Sounder, and the Louisiana educator C.E. Byrd.
An episode of MTV's Fear was shot at the Augusta Military Academy. It was featured on Season 1, Episode 4 and was renamed "Hopkins Military Academy." This was mainly to protect the academy from local teenagers, ghost hunters and urban explorers.
References
External links
- Augusta Military Academy Alumni Association
- VA-A100 Augusta Military Academy Virginia historical marker
