Tualatin Academy was a secondary school in the U.S. state of Oregon that eventually became Pacific University. Tualatin Academy also refers to the National Register of Historic Places-listed college building constructed in 1850 to house the academy, also known as Old College Hall. The building now serves as the Pacific University Museum, and is one of the oldest collegiate buildings in the western United States.AcademyCongregational minister Harvey L. Clark started a missionary school in 1841 just north of East Tualatin Plains, now Hillsboro. The school was soon moved to West Tualatin Plains (now Forest Grove) where in 1847 Clark was joined by Tabitha Moffatt Brown, the Mother of Oregon. The two then operated a school for settler’s children and Brown opened a school for orphans, opening in 1848. The Reverend Henry H. Spalding’s wife Eliza was hired to teach at the school the first year. In 1848, Presbyterians and Congregationalists determined to start a school with Clark and Brown’s school as the location. The Oregon Territorial Legislature chartered the Tualatin Academy on September 29, 1849.Founding trustees of the school included Clark, P. H. Hatch, George H. Atkinson, James M. Moore, and Osborne Russell among others. In 1854, when college classes were added, Pacific University was split from the Academy. Tualatin Academy continued alongside the university until it was closed in 1914, at a time when many private high schools disappeared with the growth of public schools.
