Black and white photographic copy of the students, teachers and principal of Fairmount Academy, Somerset County, Maryland, 1909. The copy features numbered individuals who have been identified and names printed on the left and right columns of the image. A descriptive history of Fairmount Academy is also printed adjacent to the image.

Fairmount Academy, according to local tradition, refers to an 1839 date for a school in Potato Neck. The earliest documented evidence is found in the will of Lazarus Maddox in 1841, which in defining boundaries referred to a marked pine and a schoolhouse. In 1848, a plat of Daniel Ballards land known as School House Ridge refers to a marked pine and a schoolhouse. Board of Education minutes of 1867, and after use and purpose of a schoolhouse or academy for the education of youth. The trustees to whom the land was deeded were William Muir, John Ford, Daniel Holland, Lazarus Miles, Alijah Whittington, William Ford and William Parks. Public schools began in Maryland in 1876. Fairmount Academy, although accepting state money, remained under the control of trustees until the late 1930s, when the property was deeded to Somerset County. It continued to retain trustees who met and advised the Board of Education of school needs. Eventually, Fairmount Academy became Fairmount High School with the last class graduating in 1927.