New Englanders are credited with the creation of this former academy as well as another in more fully developed classical style (demolished 1925) in nearby Athens. Pre–Civil War popular song composer Stephen Collins Foster attended this school in spring 1840 when his older brother was in Towanda supervising construction of the North Branch Canal. Originally capped with a cupola, the classically proportioned brick building is graced with a shallow columned porch, Greek Revival entrance, three brick Doric pilasters framing the facade's two bays, and a low hipped roof with an Ionic entablature. The former academy has been a private residence since c. 1867.