White Hall Academy

White Hall Academy1

Camp Hill in its time has been an important eduicational center. Here, from 1851 to 1863, was located the White Hall Academy, which in its time enjoyed an enviable reputation and widespread popularity. Prof. David Denlinger was its Principal and Proprietor and it was familiarly  known as Denlinger's Academy. Mr. Denlinger was assisted by a corps of able instructors, among whom numbered Dr. Andrew Dinsmore, D. G. Swatz, Amos Row, E. O. Dare, John Mercer and Alexander Blessing. Lemuel Simmons, Hugh Coyle, A. P. Tuepser, William A. Loveland and Rev. H. L. Soule, were instructors in vocal and instrumental music, while T. Kirk White and A. A. Saner taught plain and ornamental penmanship, penmanship then being an art of much more importance than it has been since the invention of the typewriter. Drs. R. G. Young, Austin W. Nichols, and John D. Bowman, and Prof. F. M. I. Gillelen were lecturers on special subjects. The curriculum included the customary English branches, the natural sciences, mathematics, mental and moral philosophy, the ancient and modern languages and music. Board and lodging were provided in the academy building and students attending from a distance enjoyed all the conveniences and comforts of a home.

In the first ten years of its existence, the institution had to its credit an enrollment of 548 students, coming from twenty-six different counties in Pennsylvania and from five different states. The school continued to flourish until 1863 when the War of the Rebellion, together with the establishment of the system of normal schools that covered the entire state, crippled it so effectually that its proprietor was compelled to close it.

• 1. Cumberland BlueBook, pp. 87-88