Bacon Academy is a public high school in Colchester, Connecticut, in the United States.
In 1800 a prominent Colchester farmer, Pierpont Bacon, died and left an endowment of thirty-five thousand dollars (with buying power equivalent to that of about two million dollars in 2009). The endowment was to the
:inhabitants of the First Society of Colchester for the purpose of supporting and maintaining a school…for the instruction of Youth in Reading and writing English, in Arithmetic, Mathimaticks, and the Languages, or such other branches of Learning.
This established the academy that bears his name. Bacon Academy's doors opened to the children of Colchester on the first of November 1803 and from that point forward, prepared many young men and women for the life that lay ahead.
History
In its early days, Bacon Academy had a reputation of preparing its students for accomplishment at universities and colleges around the country. Local children attended the school without charge for tuition. The status of the Academy was high in the minds of many prominent fathers of the nineteenth century.
The trustees established an academic year of three terms: the first term started in September and ended in December, the second ran from January to April, and the third, from May to August. Early class rolls show that the number of local students would fall in planting and harvesting seasons, many students skipping semesters or returning either late in the first term or leaving early in the second and not attending the Academy at all during the third.
On March 17, 2012, the varsity girls basketball team won the Class L State Championship with a 38-34 victory over top-seeded E.O. Smith at Mohegan Sun Arena. Head coach Dave Shea, a 1952 Bacon Academy graduate, won his 660th career game (331 with the girls) at Bacon Academy. Also, the girls basketball team finished third in Connecticut in the final 2012 New Haven Register State Poll.
On November 18, 2023, the varsity girls soccer team won their first Class M State Championship with a 2-1 victory over previously undefeated Suffield High School. The game was tied in regulation and through overtime, so it went to 3 rounds of penalty kicks. Elizabeth Glover, the Junior Goal Keeper for Bacon Academy, made the winning kick and was named MVP of the State Tournament.
On March 15, 2025, the varsity girls basketball team won the Class M State Championship with a 39-25 victory over Windham High School at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Head Coach Kevin Fennel used a dominant 3-2 zone defense to frustrate Windham in the final and everyone else throughout the state tournament. The 2024-2025 team finished the season at 25-2 and used an 18 game winning streak to win the Eastern Connecticut Conference (ECC) Division II title, the ECC post Season Tournament Championship over Norwich Free Academy, and, finally, the State Championship.
Notable alumni
- Stephen F. Austin — The "father of Texas"
- William Alfred Buckingham — Governor and Republican Senator for Connecticut from 1869–1875
- Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley — First president of Aetna Insurance Company
- Morgan Bulkeley — Mayor of Hartford, Governor of Connecticut, Republican Senator for Connecticut from 1905–1911, and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
- J. Cleaveland Cady — architect
- Jonathan Coulton — American singer-songwriter
- William J. Johnston — recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor
- Edwin D. Morgan — Governor of New York, U.S. Senator
- Lewis E. Stanton — United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut
- Lyman Trumbull — U.S. Senator of Illinois and co-author of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- Morrison Remick Waite — Supreme Court Justice, January 1874- March 23, 1888
- Ron Wotus — Major League Baseball player and retired third base coach for the San Francisco Giants
- Arthur Williams Wright — received first PhD in science granted outside Europe while student at Yale University