By John M. Holman
Contributing Writer

Hampton Grammar School -- 1873 - 1922
Hampton Center School -- 1921-22 - present
Hampton Academy -- 1810 - 1940
Hampton Academy & High School -- 1940 - 1958
Hampton Academy (A Middle School) -- 1958 - present
Winnnacunnet High School -- 1958 - present
Adeline C. Marston Elementary School -- 1957 - present

The original wooden Hampton Academy building on "Academy Green", now known as Meeting House Green at 40 Park Avenue, stood from 1810 until 1851, when it was destroyed by fire between the hours of 1 and 2 a.m.

A new 2 story building with steeple and bell was erected the following year in 1852, on the site of the burned building.

On January 22, 1883, at 12 noon, the building was moved from the "Green" to 29 Academy Avenue on the site of the new Hampton Academy Junior High additions. 80 pair of oxen and 10 pair of large team horses hitched to large chains borrowed from the Portsmouth Navy Yard, pulled the building over Ring Swamp on snow-skids in just 17 minutes at a total cost of $375.00.

A new brick building was built in 1939-40 and dedicated on June 8, 1940. The old Hampton Academy Building was auctioned off in July, sold for $200, and razed for salvage. The wooden steeple ball from the old Academy building is on display in the Tuck Museum on Park Avenue. In the picture below, the old and the new schools exist side by side for a short time.

The building ended as a High School in 1958 and became Hampton Academy Junior High School [in 2005, the name was changed again to HAMPTON ACADEMY (A Middle School), retaining the wording "HAMPTON ACADEMY" in its name, to conform with the rules of the Academy Trustees. A new WINNACUNNET HIGH SCHOOL was opened in September 1958, graduating its first class in June 1959. Two additions were added to the H.A. Middle School in 1963 and 1975

In March 1922, a new $90,000 school was dedicated and named "CENTRE SCHOOL" on the site of the 2 story wooden building, originally called "GRAMMAR SCHOOL". This building was moved to the corner of Academy Avenue and Winnacunnet Road and became for a time, the American Legion Post #35 Hall, the first public Kindergarten classrooms, Fire Station #2, Hampton District Court and is presently vacant in 2007. The District Court was moved to Seabrook temporarily.

"In 1955, it was proposed to build a new elementary school off High Street between Mill and Hobbs roads. At a special school district meeting on April 27, 1955, voters authorized the School Board to name the new school "THE ADELINE C. MARSTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL", after one of Hampton's most beloved teachers".

" ....... One of the most beloved of all Hampton teachers, and one who taught among the longest, was Adeline Copeland Marston. Miss Marston, born in 1884, was chosen valedictorian of her class and then taught in Hampton elementary schools for 47 years, from 1907 to 1954. On June 14, 1954, in recognition of her years of teaching, a testimonial, sponsored by the Hampton PTA, was held for her in the Centre School.

"Miss Marston died in 1963, but not before she had helped, on February 3, 1957, to dedicate Hampton's newest elementary school, the Adeline C. Marston Elementary School. (The 12-room school had opened for classes in January of that same year.) Fortunately she lived to see that mark of appreciation from the town and its citizens for her long service. ......"

Front row, left to right: Clarence E. Shaw, Ralph R. Johnson'25, Ralph B. Seavey '25, Arthur B. Collins, Jr. '26, Arnold George, Allan P Skoog '27, and Lawrence E. Keen '25.
Back row: Paul W. Hobbs '25, Edmund Langley, Carlisle E. Moody '27, John T. White '25, Myrle L. Ring '25 and Lawrence E. Tilton.
Not pictured: Philip Nudd '26, Winston Brown, Richard Waters and Coach Clayton W. Johnson '20.
(The house in the background is at 157 High Street, the first house after the Junior High School going east.)[Photo/courtesy John M. Holman]

6th Row, l. to r.:Elizabeth Hersey, Althea Lamprey, Edward Bowley, John Trumbull, Betty Lou Freeman, Phyllis Blake, Fred Russell, John Holman, John Donahue, Norman Grandmaison, Darrell Roberts, Donald Walker, Robert Quinn, Gerard Grenier.

5th Row, l. to r.: Ronnie Wright, Mary Kuntz, Marie Kuntz, Bruce MacLaughlin, ?, Bill McIlveen, ?, ?, Richard C. Durant, Paul Rose, Clifford Eastman, Isabel Shaw, Lois Allen.

4th Row, l. to r.: Nancy Hoyt, ?, Barbara Garland.

3rd Row, l. to r.: ?, Geneva Roberts, Marilyn Morse.

2nd Row, l. to r.: Carlene Wise, ?, .

1st Row, l. to r.: Nancy Wright, Dorothy Henderson, Merwyn Thompson.

[Back Row, l. to r.:] Betty Lou Freeman, Geneva Roberts, Mary Kuntz, Miss Thelma Norton (teacher), Marie Kuntz, Phyllis Blake, Carlene Wise.

[Middle Row, l. to r.:] Clifford Eastman, Donald Walker, William Stickney, Billy Davidson, John Holman, Norman Grandmaison, Wallace Shaw, Bruce MacLaughlin, Fred Russell, Gerard Grenier, Robert Taccetta.

[Front Row, l. to r.:] Richard Taylor, Marilyn Morse, Isabel Shaw, Merwyn Thompson, Nancy Hoyt, Nancy Wright, Barbara Garland, Dorothy Henderson, Elizabeth Hersey, Lois Allen, Althea Lamprey, Mary Ann Elliot, Darrell Roberts.

(Front row, l. to r.:) Majorettes:Pauline Moore, Carlene Wise, Doris Miller and Dorcas Smith.

(Middle Row, l. to r.:) Frank Moody, Fred Russell, Roger Hammond, John Calvin Emery, Bob Jeralds, Donald Munsey, Leslie Brown, Richard Dearborn and Eileen Janvrin.

(Back row, l. to r.:) Earl Midgley, Carl Perkins, Alfred Casassa, George O'Brien, John Holman, Allen "Bud" Palmer, Jackie Brooks, and (?).

See also this excellent oral history