First Teachers' College

This building is now the Masonic lodge building for Simon W. Robinson lodge.  The sign reads:

(caption on drawing) A student's drawing of the Normal School, 1843

First Teacher's College

This building was constructed in 1822 to house the Lexington Academy, a private school. In 1839, Horace Mann, Secretary to the Massachusetts Board of Education, persuaded the state to establish the nation's first normal schools, or teacher's colleges. Classes were held here for women only (other schools were male only, or co-ed) for five years. When enrollment grew too large, the Board found new quarters in Newton.

After a colorful period when the building successively housed a church, a variety store and a movie theater, the Lexington Masons acquired it in the 1920s.