Description
Üsküdar American Academy was originally founded in 1876. The site in Bağlarbaşı was originally the American College for Girls. ACG vacated the Bağlarbaşı site in 1914 and moved to Arnavutköy leaving the Bağlarbaşı campus empty from 1914-1921 except for the years 1914-15 when the buildings of our school were used as an orphanage by the Americans and the years 1915-1918 when the Turkish army used the school for barracks.
When Üsküdar American Academy for Girls was looking for a new location in Istanbul, it moved to the present site in Bağlarbaşı in the early 1920’s. With its new site and in the spirit of the new Turkish republic, the school became dedicated to quality education for girls.
One of the original Turkish principals of our school, Semiha Malatyalıoğlu, shared some of her memories of the earlier years of Üsküdar American Academy, which you can find further down on this page. She graduated from this school in 1928 and served as the Turkish vice principal for 37 years.
Her primary impressions about the school revealed the closeness of students and faculty at Üsküdar American Academy.
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN 1925
In 1925, the education at the school was being done in the basement of Barton Hall and in Bowker Hall. The Round House was in the same place as it is today. There was a wooden black building in the place of Emir Konak.
There was originally a stable on the site where Kinney Cottage stands today. The school’s need for milk was met by the cows that lived in the stable. The stable was later demolished and the Practice House (Kinney Cottage) was built as a homemaking skills practicing center for the seniors.
The building was named Kinney Cottage in memory of Mary Kinney who was the principal of the school when it moved from Adapazarı.
The old organ in the auditorium was given by Robert College to be used in the frequent choral programs.
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN 1950
A "time capsule" at Çalıdere Cottage was discovered. The capsule contained some objects placed there by the builder of the house Dorothy Blatter, an art teacher and author that worked at the school from 1931 to 1961. She had the house built in the fall of 1950 and apparently placed her time capsule behind a small corner stone in the wall of the house on December 21, 1950. The property upon which the house was built remains a part of the UAA campus today. In 1996 construction of the newest faculty housing was completed on the same land that Dorothy acquired.
