Academy of Richmond County

The Academy of Richmond County is a high school located in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Known previously as Richmond County Military Academy, it is commonly known as Richmond Academy or ARC.Chartered in 1783, it is the fifth oldest existing public high school in the United States, and the oldest existing public high school in the Southern United States.Richmond Academy is located at the edge of the Summerville historic district of Augusta.HistoryInitially an all-male, privately funded school, it became a military school after the Civil War. Richmond Academy transitioned into a co-educational, traditional high school during the last half of the 20th century, although it has maintained a strong military Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.President George Washington delivered the commencement address at the graduation ceremonies at ARC in 1791.The original Richmond Academy building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.In 1926, the academy moved to its present-day building on Walton Way. Then-principal Major George Butler described the school in 1927 as "second to none in the South in terms of facility." The 1926 building of the school has a Gothic-style architecture.Up until the 1950s, ARC was for white males only. During the 1950s the school became coeducational, and in 1964, the school became desegregated.