Gorham Campus Tour Home Page

Gorham Campus Tour Home Page

CAMPUS - The site of the new Normal School (there were already two in Maine— Castine and Farmington) was a five acre lot of land owned by another McLellan, J.T., which was on Townhouse Hill facing High Street, as College Avenue was then called. Since the Gorham Academy had been only for boys, the Academy Trustees established the Female Seminary in 1836. The building was erected on the strength of pledges amounting to $21,000. Only $7,000 was collected, so for some years the Trustees were in financial difficulties. However, both Academy and Seminary flourished. It is said that Kate Douglas Wiggins attended the Seminary. In the 1870’s, when public high schools became common in Maine, the school failed, as did many other private secondary schools of the time. The Trustees, who wanted the Normal School in Gorham, offered the buildings to the State for the use of the Normal School, and the Seminary building became the first dormitory for women.