Recently widowed, a woman in Wilmot sifted through her in-laws' memorabilia in a barn loft a couple of months ago. Pouring through dusty photos, booklets and junk, she came upon a treasure trove of Proctor documents. Her late husband's grandfather, James Bernard Morey, saved six school catalogs, starting with 1905-06, when he enrolled as a "self-boarding" (day) seventh grader.

Today, these informative booklets, a framed photograph of the 1910-11 football and baseball teams and a framed diploma are secure in Proctor archives.

The catalogs reveal a school offering four "courses," or academic curricula: Classical, Scientific, English and Commercial. The breadth of offerings is a remarkable testament to the talents and work habits of six faculty. Included in these are two women whose leadership made a lasting impression on the school: Clara May Currier (English and History)and Luella Scales '84 (Mathematics and Science.) Photographs in the catalogs present intimidating athletic teams and new buildings and facilities.

The school operated under the auspices of the Unitarian Education Society of New Hampshire, and the Board of Officers included prominent Unitarians. These were years of relative prosperity, as New England Unitarians-- including Ezra Stiles Gannett and Isaac Cary--supported Proctor and its growth. (Maxwell Savage was later named for a Unitarian minister from Worcester.) Here's a track team:

Brief histories of the school in the booklets trace its origins to John Proctor and the link with the Unitarian society in 1879, not to the original charter of Andover Academy in 1848. Here's an excerpt: "The soil of Andover is sandy, affording good drainage. Drinking water is brought from springs at the base of Ragged Mountain. The air is pure and bracing. Mount Kearsarge and Ragged Mountain are easily accessible, and every opportunity is afforded for healthful out-of-door exercise."

Sharing trustees and benefactors with Harvard University, Proctor Academy attracted the expertise of the region's preeminent architect, H. Langford Warren. The founder and president of Harvard's architecture curriculum, Warren came to Proctor and drew blueprints for the renovation of a barn into Slocomb Hall (as a gymnasium and assembly space), Cary House (a girls residence for 40) and Gannett House (boys). These new facilities were classic expressions of H. Langford Warren's "Arts and Crafts School" of design, which paid homage to traditional English styles and sensibilities.