Chartered in 1853 as the Beaver Female Academy under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and later renamed Beaver College and Musical Institute, this building had an honorable history for nearly 100 years.
The present older classroom wing of the junior High School was one of the two buildings which replaced the original structure destroyed by fire in 1895. Its companion wing, which housed living quarters as well as classrooms, was razed in 1926 to make way for the auditorium and gymnasium when the property was purchased by the local Board of Education. This purchase followed an unsuccessful drive to raise funds to move the campus to Windy Ghoul in 1924, and the charter subsequently was sold to the Beechwood School in Philadelphia. At the turn of the century, a faculty of 16 experienced full-time teachers taught courses in four curriculums - classical, scientific, Latin and modern languages each covering four years of degree study. There were also complete courses in piano, pipe organ and voice, as well as in art and commercial subjects.
Following the Reverend Sherwood Baker in 1853, a series of the college presidents lived in the house across the street now occupied by the Fort McIntosh Club. Here Rudyard Kipling, Poet Laureate of England, stayed as a guest of the presidents on several of his visits to Beaver in the 1880's and 1890's.