Western Reserve Academy
About this property
Western Reserve Academy (WRA), or simply Reserve, is a private, midsized, coeducational boarding and day college preparatory school located in Hudson, Ohio, United States. Western Reserve Academy is largely a residential campus, with 280 of 390 students living on campus and the remainder attending as day students. Students from over 20 states and 15 countries attend. Western Reserve Academy was established on February 7, 1826, as the Western Reserve College and Preparatory School in Hudson, Ohio, on a 190-acre (77 ha) plot of land set aside by charter by the Ohio legislature. Reserve is the 27th oldest preparatory boarding school in the United States, and the oldest outside of the Northeast. The institution's name comes from the area in which it was built, the Connecticut Western Reserve, as it was the first of its kind in Northern Ohio. The settlers from Connecticut wanted to build a school on a par with Yale College. They selected the same architectural design, with brick buildings and the same motto, Lux et Veritas. People called it "the Yale of the West." The first cohort included eleven students at the college level and eight at the preparatory level. In 1882, the college section moved north to Cleveland and became Western Reserve University, later merging with the Case Institute of Technology to become Case Western Reserve University. Western Reserve Academy remained open for another twenty-one years until 1903, when it closed due to financial problems. In 1916, however, the school reopened with the support of James Ellsworth, a former student and Hudson resident who had returned after becoming wealthy in the coal industry. The "Ellsworth Era" was marked by significant construction: Seymour Hall (the newly appointed academic building), the Bicknell Gymnasium, and Ellsworth Hall (a dormitory and dining hall). In 1922, Western Reserve Academy became an all-boys institution, remaining so for 50 years until 1972, when girls were admitted to the junior class, once again becoming a co-ed institution. In 2001, Western Reserve Academy was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top boarding schools in the country. The school offers various sports, including soccer, golf, cross-country, field hockey, volleyball, swimming and diving, basketball, wrestling, rifle, baseball, softball, track and field, tennis, fencing, and lacrosse. Western Reserve Academy has become one of the top high school lacrosse teams in the United States. In 2006 and 2009, WRA won the Midwest Scholastic Lacrosse Championship and respectively finished ranked 27th and 28th nationally according to LaxPower.com. Only three different teams have won the Midwest Championships since 1992: Brother Rice High School, Western Reserve Academy, and Upper Arlington High School. Inside Lacrosse ranked the 2009 WRA lacrosse team number one in the Midwest.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Western Reserve Academy listed on the National Register?
Western Reserve Academy was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 1975.
What type of historic resource is Western Reserve Academy?
Western Reserve Academy is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Western Reserve Academy?
The period of significance for Western Reserve Academy is recorded as the listed era.
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