YOU TALK ABOUT A BEAUTIFUL, DIGNIFIED BUILDING. WHAT YOU’RE SEEING THERE IS THE TOWN OFFICE BUILDING FOR NEW LONDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE. AT LEAST IT HAS BEEN THE TOWN OFFICES SINCE 1999. IN THAT YEAR, THE STRUCTURE WAS GIVEN TO THE TOWN BY COLBY-SAWYER COLLEGE, WHICH IS RIGHT OVER THERE IN FACT, THIS BUILDING IS WHERE COLBY-SAWYER BEGAN ITS LIFE. IT’S THE ORIGINAL HOME OF WHAT WAS THEN CALLED NEW LONDON. AS ACADEMY, WHICH OPENED. IN 1838. LONG TIME AGO. FOR ITS FIRST YEAR, THIS WAS A SCHOOL ONLY FOR GIRLS ONLY ONE BOY ATTENDED THE ACADEMY THAT FIRST SEMESTER, AND THAT WAS 11 YEAR OLD NAHUM GREENWOOD, WHOSE DAD RAN A LOCAL STORE NEAR HIM, HOWEVER, WAS THE LONE BOY ONLY FOR THAT FIRST TERME. BY THE SECOND TERME, THE SCHOOL HAD GONE COED. THEY HAD BOYS AS WELL. THERE WERE 137 STUDENTS THAT FIRST YEAR. THE FIRST PRINCIPAL OF THE NEW LONDON ACADEMY WAS MISS SUSAN F COLBY. SHE WAS THE DAUGHTER OF ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SCHOOL, AND HE WAS, I WOULD SAY, THE MOST RESPECTED MAN IN TOWN. ANTHONY COLBY. HE OWNED THE SCYTHE FACTORY, SOLD SCYTHES ALL OVER AMERICA. THOSE THINGS WERE CUTTING GRASS. HE MADE A LOT OF MONEY. HE ALSO LATER BECAME GOVERNOR OF THE STATE. HE WAS A WHIG, A LIBERAL. HIS DAUGHTER, SUSAN WAS A SCHOLAR, AND SHE WAS A GRADUATE OF THE NEW HAMPTON INSTITUTE. LATER WOULD BECOME, OF COURSE, THE NEW HAMPTON SCHOOL, A PREP SCHOOL. AND WHEN SUSAN WENT THERE, IT WAS RUN BY THE FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH. SUSAN COLBY WAS, BY THE WAY, AHEAD OF HER TIME WHEN IT CAME TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS. SHE WAS A CHAMPION OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN, AND SHE WAS AT THIS TIME ONLY 20 YEARS OLD. 14 YEARS LATER, WHEN SHE WAS 34, SUSAN COLBY MARRIED JAMES BAUGHMAN COLGATE. MR. COLGATE WAS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE NEW YORK GOLD EXCHANGE. HE WAS EXTREMELY WEALTHY. HE WAS ALSO, LIKE HIS WIFE, INTERESTED IN EDUCATION. HE FOUNDED AND IS NAMED FOR HER. YOU GOT IT. COLGATE UNIVERSITY IN HAMILTON, NEW YORK. AND SUSAN DIDN’T FORGET HER LOVE FOR NEW LONDON AND THE SCHOOL SHE HELPED FOUND. IT LATER WOULD BECOME COLBY ACADEMY AND THEN COLBY JUNIOR COLLEGE. THE CENTRAL BUILDING OF THE SCHOOL IS COLGATE HALL, NAMED FOR HER HUSBAND. NOWADAYS, THE SCHOOL IS COLBY-SAWYER COLLEGE AND THE SAWYER PART COMES FROM H. LESLIE SAWYER. HE WAS PRESIDENT OF COLBY JUNIOR COLLEGE FROM 1928 TO 1955, BUT IT ALL STARTED WITH THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL BUILDING. YOU SEE RIGHT THERE REALLY MAKES