He secured his early education at Parkins Classical School and Mossy Creek Academy before entering the University of Virginia in 1859.

Mr. Roller, aware of the situation, promptly went to work teaching boys, many of them veterans of the war, in a simple, red brick structure (now demolished) which formerly stood on the property of Augusta Old Stone Church, just north of the current AMA campus.

In his absence, education in the Fort Defiance area came to a standstill and he returned to Augusta County with renewed determination to establish a proper school for boys".

Over the next 18 years, Roller constructed additional units for the Academy's programs and by 1897, a group of frame buildings stood in a line parallel to the Valley Pike occupying the same space now filled by the brick collegiate structures which replaced them in the early 20th century.

A two- story wing was added to the left of the Roller home; the first floor of which was designed to serve as the Academy dining room.

Although it has been enlarged and completely remodeled numerous times, the Roller home with its original Academy dining room is still in use today.

Because many of Professor Roller's first students were veterans of the Civil War, a military-type discipline for the classroom offered a means of control.

It is believed that he conceived the “Ad Astra per Aspera Society” on the long boat ride home and that it became a reality for the school in 1925.

Under the combined leadership of the Roller brothers, AMA's enrollment and standing as a prestigious college preparatory school grew.

Most notable (and recognizable) for AMA is the "Main Barracks"; a three-story, rectangular structure constructed of rough stucco walls above a limestone-faced first story in the tower.

It is the two-story, double-pile, frame building sheathed in German siding and covered by a hipped, slate shingle roof.