[2] The academy was founded as St. Mary's Hall by the Right Reverend George Washington Doane, second Episcopal bishop of New Jersey.

[8] Founded to offer a classical education equal to that of boys, it accepted girls and young women as undergraduates and postgraduates.

During its early years, the students mostly came from the East Coast, but were drawn from a wide area, ranging from New England to Virginia, and into upstate New York, who traveled to the school by boat and stagecoach.

Saint Mary's Hall survived, financed mainly from the personal funds of Eliza Green Perkins Doane, the Bishop's wife.

[9] The success of St. Mary's Hall encouraged Bishop Doane to open a boys' school on an adjacent site in 1846.

[12] Many private schools were forced to close during the Depression, but St. Mary's Hall was able to increase the number of day pupils by establishing additional bus routes over the newly completed Burlington-Bristol Bridge to Pennsylvania on the other side of the Delaware River.

Originally built by Hall and Labaugh in 1854 and rebuilt by George Jardine and Son in 1900, it was restored in 2012 by Patrick J Murphy and Associates.

The school's student body was 48.5% (116) White, 31.4% (75) Black, 9.6% (23) Asian, 8.8% (21) two or more races, 1.3% (23) Hispanic and 0.4% (1) Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander.

The pupils in grades 6—8 compete against other middle school teams in soccer, boys' and girls' basketball, baseball and softball.

The Doane Academy Spartans[5] compete in interscholastic sports as part of the Burlington County Scholastic League which is comprised of public and private high schools in the Burlington County area and operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA), for all sports with the exception of the crew team.

Professional teaching artists show students how to see the world in higher definition as they learn techniques and principals of modern humanist realism.

Nelson Shanks, the late world-renowned artist and co-founder of Studio Incamminati, said that one of the goals of his Realism school and program was to train students to “see”, and to do so beyond the shape and color of the subject.

In the spring of each year, the Upper School's Spartan Studio Actors put on a play or musical.

Recent performances have included Firebirds, The Diary of Anne Frank, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Revised), Little Shop of Horrors, All in the Timing, and The World Goes 'Round.

In May or June, the Lower School stages a production, such as Hamlet for Kids and The Day the Crayons Quit.