With approval of the legislature, members of the Masonic Lodge and citizens jointly organized a public lottery to raise construction funds for the building. An advertisement in 1848 for the school, located on the first floor of the edifice, read, “The Building is one of the most commodious and comfortable in the State.” The last students departed the Academy in 1885, and the Masons updated the structure with a mansard roof, removed in 1920 when a portico was added. The railroad was built alongside in 1867, and the town station stands not far away on Railroad Avenue; it was restored by French + Ryan in 2003.