Linsly School

The Linsly School, formerly known as the Linsly Military Institute, is a boarding and day school located in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was founded in 1814 by Noah Linsly and chartered by the State of Virginia in the same year. The school is the oldest preparatory school west of the Alleghenies. It was originally known as the Lancastrian Academy. History Upon Noah Linsly's death in 1814, his will provided money for the establishment of a Lancastrian Academy in Wheeling, Virginia. In 1877, the Academy, located in the then newly-formed state of West Virginia, was renamed the Linsly Military Institute in honor of its founding benefactor. In 1978, the school switched from a military-structured school to a traditional boys' preparatory school, renamed The Linsly School. The school's first location was in downtown Wheeling, purchased with the sale of two farms that Noah Linsly had left to the Lancastrian Academy. The second building was in downtown Wheeling, Va. This building was used as a temporary statehouse when West Virginia became a state. The building is known as the First State Capitol. The third school building was located on National Road in the Woodsdale section of Wheeling. It was built in 1925 and officially named Thedah Place but was known as Old Main. Linsly owned property across the creek from this building, where the dormitories were (and still are) located. The current school building was built as an extension of Behrens Gym in 1966 with a donation from Sophie Banes and is known as Banes Hall. Louis Bennett Jr. never attended Linsly but is memorialized by a statue, "The Aviator", outside of Banes Hall, one of 7 that his mother commissioned in his honor. Bennett joined the Royal Flying Corps in World War I and defeated enough German aircraft to become an ace before being shot down over France. Along with the statue, Sallie Maxwell Bennett also had a window inside Westminster Abbey created.