Academy Street Educational District

Academy Street Educational District is composed of four different buildings and one walkway. These include: 1) Academy Street School, now the Fitchburg High School Annex, built in 1869; 2) Fitchburg High School, constructed between the years 1936 and 1937 and which remained as Fitchburg’s High School until the year 2000; 3) Fitchburg City Stable that was constructed in the year 1885; 4) Brown, B. F. Junior High School built in 1922; and 5) Wallace Way, a monumental staircase built and dedicated to Rodney Wallace in 1902.

The Academy Street Educational District holds a lot of the history of the city's high school and middle schools. Academy Street School or the Fitchburg High School Annex was built in 1869 by Henry M. Francis, an architect who moved from Lunenburg to Fitchburg and made many of the historical buildings in Fitchburg and other towns in Massachusetts. Academy Street School is notably one of the first buildings that H. M. Francis constructed in Fitchburg. It was designed in a Second Empire style. This was not the only high school that H. M. Francis built. He also constructed one more between the years 1893 and 95; yet, the Academy Street School is the only high school Francis built that is still standing, as the high school he had built more recently burned down in 1934.

In order to replace the H. M. Francis building that had burned down a new high school was constructed over two years, and completed in 1937. It was constructed by one of the biggest architecture firms in New England. The building was huge and prominent in the downtown area and was recognized as one of the finest schools in the entire state. The lot for the school is more than an acre in size and it cost over a million dollars to construct. This remained the Fitchburg High School for a long time. In 2000, the new and current Fitchburg High School was built, but this former Fitchburg High School is still intact and has now become a middle school under the name Longsjo Middle School.

One thing that has stayed the same since being built in 1902 is Wallace Way. It is a very wide stairway of stone that bridges the old Fitchburg High School down to the Prichard Street parallel with Academy Street, where all of the other historical buildings of this district are located. These steps were given to the city by Rodney Wallace, and they had been designed by H.M. Francis. There are plaques at the bottom of the stairs that provide some of the information given here. It is in great condition and was restored in 1956 by George Wallace. There is one change from the original design with the removal of the light post from the newel’s of the stairs; however, they still have metal ornament in its place.

On the other end of Academy Street we have the Fitchburg City Stable and B. F. Brown Junior High School. The Fitchburg City Stable was built in 1885. It lasted long after the use/need for stables and had been used by the Parks Dept for various purposes. It is still standing today in good condition with the painted “city stable” above the main entrance still clear and readable, though it has recently fallen out of use. The B. F. Brown Junior High School has a similar history. The building was constructed in 1922. It remained as a middle school for the entirety it was open but was used as a vocational school for the arts for its later part of its operation. Recently, in 2010, the school closed down and while the building was not in use, fires partially destroyed the building.

Currently, there are plans to occupy all of these buildings again. The former Fitchburg High School and Wallace Way are still being used in some way but currently, the Fitchburg High School Annex, Fitchburg City Stable, and B. F. Brown Junior High School are not in use, but still standing and just need a bit of work for them to be usable again. NewVue Communities and the Fitchburg Art Museum have been working on restoration of the buildings and making them into affordable residential buildings for the artist community. They are planning to make around 60 rentable and affordable spaces for artists, including studio and work spaces.

Whitten, Chris. Fitchburg High School, WikiTree. Accessed April 18th 2022. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Fitchburg_High_School#:~:text=The%20first%20Fitchburg%20High%20School,of%20Fitchburg,%20Massachusetts%20in%201830..

Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System. Accessed March 25th 2022. https://mhc-macris.net/#!/details?mhcid=FIT.X.

Fitchburg High School, Wikiwand. Accessed April 18th 2022. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Fitchburg_High_School.

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Artist Housing, Fitchburg Art Museum. Accessed April 30th 2022. https://fitchburgartmuseum.org/artist-housing/.