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Academy of Richmond County
Academy of Richmond County
	The front entrance to current high school building built in 1926
Address
	910 Russell Street; Augusta, Georgia 30904; United States
Information
Type	Public
Established	1783; 241 years ago
School board	1st District
School district	Richmond County School System
Principal	Jason Medlin
Teaching staff	67.00 (FTE)
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	1,141 (2022–2023)
Student to teacher ratio	17.03:1
Campus type	Urban
Color(s)	Purple and gold
Mascot	Musketeer
Feeder schools	All Richmond county public schools
Website	ARC [1]
	Academy of Richmond County-1926 Campus
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Coordinates	33°28′26″N 82°00′19″W / 33.4740°N 82.0054°W
Built	1926
Architect	Philander P. Scoggs, Whitley L. Ewing
Architectural style	Collegiate Gothic
NRHP reference No.	03001491
Added to NRHP	January 28, 2004
	Old Academy of Richmond County
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	One of the previous Academy buildings built in 1857
Location	540 Telfair St.
Coordinates	33°28′12″N 81°57′44″W / 33.4700°N 81.9623°W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1857
Architect	William Henry Goodrich
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.	73000639
Added to NRHP	April 11, 1973

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 listed as the sixth oldest existing public high school in the United States, and the oldest existing public high school in the Southern United States.^[2]

Richmond Academy is located at the edge of the Summerville historic district of Augusta.

History

Initially an all-male private school, as were most of the high schools in the 1700s, after the Civil War it was adapted as a military school. During the last half of the 20th century, Richmond Academy transitioned into a co-educational, traditional public high school. It has maintained a strong military Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps that is available, but not mandatory, for participation by students. Both the 1857, and the present 1926, Richmond Academy buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

President George Washington delivered the commencement address at the graduation ceremonies at ARC in 1791.

In 1926, the academy moved to its present-day building on Walton Way. Principal Major George Butler described the school in 1927 as "second to none in the South in terms of facility."^[3] The 1926 building was designed in Gothic-style architecture.

Up until the 1950s, ARC was for white males only. The 1951–1957 Richmond Academy boys' baseball team was ranked as one of the top 10 Georgia state sports dynasties.^[4] It has teams in many sports.

During the 1950s the school became coeducational, admitting female students. In 1964, the school began to admit minorities and became desegregated.

Contemporary Richmond Academy

Academics

The Academy of Richmond County has 1,178 students in grades 9 through 12, with a student to faculty ratio of 16:1. It offers numerous Advanced Placement courses, has a GATE (gifted and talented education) program, and an International Baccalaureate Programme course of study that was added to the school in July 2003. It is for its highly motivated, college preparatory students.^[5] ARC is one of three schools in the Central Savannah River Area that offers an IB program.

The Mathematics Team won the 2005 National Society of Black Engineers Try-Math-A-Thon, which was held in Boston.^[6]

Athletics

The school mascot is a Musketeer, and the school colors are purple and gold. The original school mascot was a bearcat.

The 1957 Varsity Baseball Team was named National Champions by MaxPreps.com. The 1952 and 1953 squads were honorable mentions.^[7]

Alumni

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Doug Barnard Jr.	1939	Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives
Dudley Hollingsworth Bowen Jr.	1959	United States federal judge
Lloyd D. Brown	1908	United States Army Major General	^[8]
Hervey M. Cleckley	1921	Psychiatrist; professor, author, and pioneer in the psychopathy field
Aquilla J. Dyess	n.d.	Medal of Honor recipient in World War II
Jack Fisher	1957	Professional baseball player (Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds)
William Henry Fleming	n.d.	Lawyer and politician, Member of the United States House of Representatives
William Dudley Geer	1941	First Dean of the School of Business at Samford University
Phil Gingrey	n.d.	Obstetrician and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives
Isaac S. Hopkins	n.d.	First president of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Frank M. Hull	1966	Lawyer and U.S. Court of Appeals judge
Susan Still Kilrain	n.d.	NASA astronaut
John Pendleton King	1818	United States Senator
Joseph R. Lamar	n.d.	United States Supreme Court Justice
James Longstreet	1837	Confederate general of the American Civil War; post-war he commanded a force including African-American militia troops against a white supremacist paramilitary organization
Ray Mercer	1979	WBO world heavyweight champion
Dan Miller	1959	Journalist, television personality, featured nationally on CBS's The Pat Sajak Show and the Nashville Network
Steve Morse	n.d.	Guitarist (left after 10th grade)
David M. Potter	1928	Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor, holding professorships including at Stanford University, Yale University, and Oxford University
Carl Sanders	1942	Governor of Georgia and lawyer; named partner of Troutman Sanders, an international law firm (later Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders)
George D. Shea	1914	U.S. Army major general	^[9]
Andy West	grad. date unknown	Bassist and composer, a founding member of the Dixie Dregs
Ken Whisenhunt	1980	NFL head coach and player of Tennessee Titans	^[10]
Jim Whitehead	1960	Republican politician
Judy Woodruff	1964	Television news anchor, journalist, and writer; has worked at CNN, NBC News, and PBS; board member of the International Women's Media Foundation; member of the Council on Foreign Relations