[1] The school was highly regarded for its academic and military programs, and many notable American political and military leaders were graduates, including Sen. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential candidate, and his son, Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr., 1960's folk singer Phil Ochs, and John Dean, a White House Counsel who was a central figure in the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s.

Near the end of his tenure at Charlestown, in May 1884, Kable sold 13 acres of his farm and purchased a house and four-acre property in Staunton with the intention of starting his own school.

[3] On September 2, 1884, the Staunton Male Academy opened with 50 students, including boarders who lived in the Kable residence.

Kable incorporated Staunton Military Academy which offered to buy the school's contents and was high bidder for the properties, having secured bonds that were to be satisfied in annual payments.

The younger Kable finally returned to Staunton in 1898 to become a Mathematics and Languages instructor and was promoted to Commandant in 1900 with responsibility for managing the academy's operations.

Eventually named South Barracks, the three-story brick fortress-like structure stood on the top of the hill at the southern edge of the academy grounds overlooking Mary Baldwin College.

In 1917, while the U.S. was becoming involved in World War I on the side of the Allies, SMA joined the Army's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program, an affiliation that would last for nearly a half-century.

Four three-story columns graced its entrance, topped by a triangular gable with a large clock overlooking The Asphalt.

The entrance from The Asphalt led to the building's third floor, which housed the school library, a post office, cadet social room, classrooms, and a laboratory.

As with South Barracks, the building had an open quadrangle with cadet rooms around the perimeter and suspended walkways on the three upper floors.

With the addition of North Barracks and its 55 cadet rooms, SMA opened its 1919-20 academic year with 650 students, a record that would stand until the mid-1960s.

The latter structure, which was three stories tall, housed the Mathematics and Foreign Language departments, classrooms, faculty apartments, a gymnasium, and three large recreation rooms.

The building, dedicated in honor of the academy's founder and his son, marked the end of the school's expansion, though various improvements would continue over the ensuing decades.

Kable also charged Gilpin Willson, the new president, with breaching his fiduciary duty as a trustee in connection with an uncollected loan, resulting in a judgment of $150 plus 20% of the premiums for a life insurance policy taken out on Russell's behalf.

[5] Finally, with the death of the new trustee in 1940, William G. Kable's widow was able to replace most of the board, giving her and her son complete control of the institution.

For the next quarter of a century, SMA earned a national reputation for its academic standards and the quality of its Junior ROTC program.

Following dinner, the evenings held more free time, sweep detail, a study period, and at the end of the day, taps.

Saturdays included periodic military inspections and town leave, while Sundays featured church services and occasional parades.

[8][9] The following year, Loeffler undertook cost-cutting measures, including a reduction in athletic scholarships and the closing of North Barracks.

However, his introduction of aggressive religious practices, peculiar staff and management changes, and reactions to accidental fires in South Barracks and Kable Hall proved too much.

Mary Baldwin University, then a women's college and SMA's longtime neighbor, bought the property for $1.1 million in a bankruptcy sale.

The military legacy of the academy's grounds continues through the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership (VWIL) at Mary Baldwin, the only all-women's corps of cadets in the world.