Thornton Academy is located at the corner of Main St. and Fairfield St. in Saco, Maine. The land for the school was purchased in 1885 and it became a legal corporation the following year. The architect for the school was Horace G. Wadlin of Reading, MA who was the cousin of Cornelius Sweetser, who had left a generous bequest to the school. It officially opened in 1889 with a class of 108 students in the large Victorian building on the right which was the original school building. In 1903 the Charles C.G. Thornton Memorial Library (building on left) was added to the campus.