Norfolk Academy

Norfolk Academy received its charter on November thirteenth, seventeen twenty-eight, making it the oldest private school in Virginia and the eighth oldest in the United States. The school traces its roots even further to land that Norfolk Town set aside for a school lot as early as sixteen eighty, with a trust deed following in seventeen twenty-eight.

The academy burned during the American Revolution in seventeen seventy-six when the town was burned during the opening of the war, was rebuilt by seventeen eighty-seven, and eventually erected its present building in eighteen forty, designed by Thomas U. Walter, the same architect who later designed the dome of the United States Capitol. After nearly three centuries of continuous operation, Norfolk Academy merged with a girls' school in nineteen sixty-six to become the coeducational institution it is today.