JERICHO ACADEMY
(from “The Blair Williams’ Story,” a compilation by friends and colleagues, April 2007,
Blair [Williams] and Jericho Center.)
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Automobile traffic had always gone through Jericho Center until it reached the southern side, taken an abrupt right turn at the Jericho Academy building, and then continued out of the Center down Barber Farm Road or down Browns Trace toward Richmond. In an effort to ease traffic flow, the road on the northern side of the Center was cut down, and a plan was made to widen the road and create a curve on the southern edge of the green. Unfortunately, the Academy building, home to secondary education for all of Jericho until the Jericho High School in the Center was build, sat in the middle of the proposed new highway, and plans were being made to tear it down. Blair quickly initiated a drive to save the building. The Ladies Aid Society assisted her in raising money to have the building moved, and Blair donated the land adjacent to her house to which it was moved in 1955. Today the building is home to the Jericho Town Library and looks as if it had been there since it was built.
Gail Schermer
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Jericho Academy on the move
Jericho Academy, now the Town Library, in its current location
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Published with the permission of Ms. Schermer, October 21, 2023