Proctor Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory boarding school for grades 9–12 located on 2,500 acres (10 km2) in Andover, New Hampshire.

The idea of the school spawned from a sewing group conversation between the wives of the area's prominent families, in the living room of attorney Samuel Butterfield.

[4] On June 23, 1848, the incorporation of the academy was approved, with Samuel Butterfield as president, Walcott Hamlin as secretary, and True Brown and John Fellows as executive committee members.

The academy opened its doors in August 1848, on the second floor of the church on Main Street,[5] with many of the desks, chairs and chalkboards donated by the Butterfields.

After Principal Morse stepped down, Thaddeus W. Bruce (1852–1853) of Dartmouth College took the helm with Miss Marcia Foster as assistant (who later married).

As the school struggled, former Andover resident John Proctor, the inventor of the threaded wood screw, returned, in 1857, to build up the town.

[8] Lyle Farrell—a 1929 graduate of the University of New Hampshire and captain of the 1928 Wildcats football team[9]—who started teaching at Proctor in the 1930s, took over as Headmaster of the school in 1952.

In 1974, the mountain classroom program was created, combining an Outward Bound type of small group outdoor experience with specialized academic sessions.