The school was founded during a time when the prevailing view was that women's education "should always be relative to men", with some believing that study of "higher subjects" such as philosophy and mathematics might render women to be infertile.
One of the first formal discussions to propose a school for young women happened on February 19, 1828.
The school was incorporated in 1829 with 70 or 85 pupils from eighteen to twenty years of age for the "exclusive work of educating women".
According to one source, the official opening day was May 6, 1829.

...to regulate the tempers, to improve the taste, to discipline and enlarge the minds and form the morals of youth...
— Abbot Constitution, 1829
The school was founded during a time when the prevailing view was that women's education "should always be relative to men", with some believing that study of "higher subjects" such as philosophy and mathematics might render women to be infertile. One of the first formal discussions to propose a school for young women happened on February 19, 1828. The school was incorporated in 1829 with 70 or 85 pupils from eighteen to twenty years of age for the "exclusive work of educating women". According to one source, the official opening day was May 6, 1829.
...to regulate the tempers, to improve the taste, to discipline and enlarge the minds and form the morals of youth...
— Abbot Constitution, 1829
Abbot Academy