Portsmouth Christian Academy - History of the School

History of the School

HISTORY OF PORTSMOUTH CHRISTIAN ACADEMY

PCA was founded in 1992 as a K-8, independent school and was located in a mothballed public school building located in Portsmouth, NH. Over the next several years the school enjoyed rapid growth and by 1995 the decision was made to open a college-preparatory high school. The new high school was located at Franklin Pierce College in Newington, NH, about 2 miles from the main school building. Our initial enrollment in the high school (named Portsmouth Christian High School) was 13 sophomores and 14 freshmen (our plan was to roll out an additional class each of the next two years).

We soon outgrew both the high school and elementary/junior high facilities. We moved the high school to Kittery, Maine for two years and began leasing modular buildings to handle the overflow in Portsmouth and Kittery. The ever increasing enrollment and the uncertain nature of our lease arrangements compelled us to seek a new location large enough to accommodate both schools and provide for continued growth. The search took several years and it wasn’t until 1998 that we learned about the possibility of purchasing our current campus.

The property was home to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center which was closing. It became apparent that the building could be configured to school specifications and we began the negotiating process in earnest. Through a series of near miraculous events, we acquired the property in January 1999 and immediately began converting the hospital into a school. Working frantically, we were able to open in the fall of 1999, though without a gymnasium. That shortcoming was rectified the following year when the first gymnasium was built adjacent to the main school building.

It was also in 1999 when we decided to open a pre-school program. The new facilities in Dover provided a wonderful venue for such an initiative and the first Lion and Lambs joined the PCA family in the fall of that year.

The high school also moved from Kittery and was established in one wing of the new school building. This was to be a temporary arrangement and we began construction of three additional buildings in 2002 (an upper school humanities/administration building, a science and arts building, and a second gymnasium). The construction projects were completed in time for the upper school to take possession of the buildings in the fall of 2003. By this time, total enrollment at PCA was closing in on 800 making the school the largest independent Christian school in New England, a distinction that it still enjoys.