(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
label levels:
The Deerfield Academy and Dickinson High School co-existed. The Academy was a private institution and the High School, built through a bequest made in 1875, was at least partly town supported. The internal politics of Deerfield reached a poisonous height, as described in this article, when two major factions collided: a reform faction seeking to reform the schools and a faction determined to keep things as they were. The schools themselves, as noted here, were almost universally determined to be in a deplorable shape. Despite the efforts of the reform group, the schools would remain joined. They were finally forced apart by state action in a law drafted in 1917 and enacted in 1923. However, the schools themselves began a dramatic comeback with the appointment in 1902 of Frank Boyden to direct the Deerfield Academy. Through his leadership, the Academy quickly regained its reputation and in the process the quality of the Dickinson Academy also rose dramatically.