[3] Located in Andover, Massachusetts, Abbot Academy was notable as one of the first incorporated secondary schools for educating young women in New England.

[10] The school was incorporated in 1829 with 70[4] or 85[10] pupils from eighteen to twenty years of age for the "exclusive work of educating women".

[4] ...to regulate the tempers, to improve the taste, to discipline and enlarge the minds and form the morals of youth...The school received financial support from Sarah Abbot who pledged substantial money, which allowed for loans to begin construction; Sarah Abbot died in 1850 and left a substantial sum for educational purposes.

[10] In 1859, the "strong-willed" but "ideologically moderate" McKeen sisters — headmistress Philena and Phebe—exerted strong leadership by adopting a "school-home" approach.

Between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. older students often climbed the Hill for a Geology lecture while younger ones did their daily calisthenics, but all must be on hand for the Devotions that formally opened the school day.

Before midday dinner everyone wore gym suits with pantaloons, and skirts ten inches from the ground.

... Recitations continued till 3:30, then came Recreation Hours, with time for walking in pairs, studying, mending, croquet, or (after 1886) tennis.

Supper followed; the evening was an alternation of study hours, "half-hours" for individual meditation ... and "quarters" for room-to-room visiting.

[1] The campus was visited by Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan and Amos Bronson Alcott.

[9] Despite financial concerns, the school continued to dismiss "unruly or lazy students" or those who tucked "dummies into their beds" to spend the night at Phillips Academy.

... Abbot was the only place I'd heard of in 1949 where 1849 was still preserved.However, some students appreciated that the rules cleared "time and space for that peaceful collection of self".

"[9] Lloyd described the coming changes: No school is an island: before 1960, every chapter of Abbot's story had been bound in some degree to the realities and dreams of the larger society.

The Trustees opened them and the world rushed in like a clumsy repairman, knocking over tables and trampling valuable heirlooms, but also bringing fresh air into musty places, and piling on the floor a heap of lumber and tools with which to build anew.According to Lloyd, Abbot Academy seemed to be a "nineteenth century school" which was stagnant and insular and limited in comparison with the abrupt societal changes made during the 1960s.

[9] In 1967, there were greater ties between Phillips Academy and Abbot, including a Phillips-Abbot committee to explore a "wide range of shared activities" between the two schools.

[9] Abbot trustee Philip Allen had determined that both schools should merge, but that this was a "hidden agenda"; Allen brought in headmaster Donald Gordon, a graduate of Phillips Academy and Yale, to bring "Abbot up to the point where it could be part of Phillips Academy.

[9] The 1969-70 year was "tumultuous" nationwide, with student revolts on many college campuses and foreign policy failures abroad.

Two pairs of faded blue jeans wandered by, one belted in macrame and filled by a man of bristling beard; he was discussing English papers with the other.The late 1960s and early 1970s was marked by the merger between the two schools.

Athletic programs included basketball, crew,[23] cycling, ballet and modern dance, fencing, soccer, softball, and tennis.

In the late 1960s, Abbot's math department set up a paper-tape terminal connected to a computer at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.

The award is given to a female Phillips Academy senior who " … best exemplifies 'strong character, effective leadership and outstanding scholarship.

The locally based Clan MacPherson Pipes and Drums led graduation processions on the Abbot Circle.

By tradition, Junior Mids who purchased Abbot Academy class rings the year before wore them with the "AA" insignia upside-down.

[37] The tree-lined Maple Walk, which once connected the dining room at the back of Draper Hall with Phillips Street, remains in use.

This plan was designed to prevent the academy from demolishing the land to make way for single-family homes or selling the acreage to private developers.

A town meeting was then set in place on April 4–6 of 1988, with the Phillips Academy historical preservation plan needing a two-thirds yes vote on Article 101 to get support in retaining the campus for the school's own use.

Those who wanted to vote no on Article 101, made the argument that the repurposed use of Abbot campus buildings for commercial use would in turn decrease the property value of existing Andover residential neighborhood homes.