Admiral Farragut Academy started in 1932 in Pine Beach, NJ,
housed in an old Hotel on the Toms River. Graduates included Alan B Shepard.
In 1945 a second campus was launched in St. Petersburg, FL, which is online
at www.farragut.org and has an enrollment
of about 400 students.
The northern campus closed in 1994 (details below). The Alumni Association at the southern campus continues to serve all Alumni.
In 2003 Captain Jewett, a highly-respected teacher of ours, died. I went to his funeral and some pictures of that are shown here.
These photos
are probably from the 1980 catalog.
Top: Serge Obelensky '79 with LCDR Grahl, the Commandant of Cadets.
Left: Rick Koch and Anton Largiader '83 with CPO Carson, USN.
Right: Christopher Scales '81? with Miguel Payano '80?
The school had been in financial straits for many years, and by the '90s the Board of Trustees had been taken over by a group of local businessmen [names when available] who were more interested in developing the property than they were in keeping the school open. Although the alumni had raised enough money to pay off the school's $1.8 million debt, the board didn't accept the money even after the alumni offered over $2 million.
Worse yet, the contents of the museum were not given to the southern campus when it would not accept the northern campus' debt (the schools had financially separated themselves in 1992) and were auctioned off or sold privately. Some of the items are in private homes and some show up on eBay from time to time.
After closure, the campus remained abandoned for several years and was eventually demolished. The planned development then fell through due to pre-existing zoning restrictions (duh!) and the land has been undisturbed since.
Photos of the decaying buildings were taken in 2001? by Michael Brown and are shown here.