Mount Pleasant Classical Institute


Mount Pleasant Classical Institute, was a boarding school for boys in Amherst, Massachusetts. It operated for five years from 1827-1832, and served ages 4-16. It was founded by Amherst College graduates Chauncey Colton and Francis Fellowes.
Abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher attended the school beginning in 1847. Yearly tuition was over $250, which was more than that of the local Amherst Academy.
After the school was closed, the building was partly dismantled and moved to other locations within Amherst. One wing, which became known as the “Bee Hive”, was turned into a tenement house which housed a significant proportion of Amherst’s African-American population.