Marker Number: 83

Name and date established: Effingham 1972

Description: On the rise of the ground just west of here, on the second floor of the old Effingham Union Academy Building (1819), was the First Normal School in New Hampshire. It was in this Academy in 1830 that James W. Bradbury, later United States Senator from Maine, took charge of the school only on condition that it should be for the "instruction and training of teachers." The idea was his own and at that time entirely novel. The Effingham Union Academy Building is a part of the Lord's Hill District which was listed on the National Register in 1985.

Location: Located in the Lord's Hill section of Effingham, in a triangular plot at the intersection of Route 153 and Hobbs Road, which leads to the old Union Academy.