Original artist rendering of completed renovation.

The story of Utica Free Academy goes back to the year 1814, when steps were taken in the village of Utica to organize an academy.  Since its construction, a number of structural changes have been made, including the 1967 renovation.

On March 25, 1965, the Utica Board of Education approved a plan of modernization and reconstruction. The plan called for the addition of a wing at the south side of the academy and a renovation of the "old building." The plan provided for a new library, a larger cafeteria, a book store, and additional classrooms.  Reconstruction got underway in 1966 under the direction of architect Frank C. Delle Cese.

The plans for the addition called for; a cafeteria with a seating capacity for eight hundred persons: a second floor library of eighteen thousand volumes; a book store; a study hall; a third floor modernized biology, chemistry, and physics laboratories which would include a planetarium and a greenhouse.

The interior of the old section was torn down and steel and concrete frames replaced the old wooden ones. An attempt was made to maintain the exterior walls of the "old building" in order to preserve the classic lines of the academy as it was in 1914.

During the first period on the morning of February 16, 1967, the science department experienced a rumble and a roar. Only three months prior to this date the wind had toppled a small portion of the back wall of the remaining brick shell of the "old" section.  This time, the wind, with gusts up to seventy miles per hour, toppled the entire front wall leaving the old building looking as though a bomb had just been dropped.

The wind, along with the flying debris, knocked out windows and cracked walls in several sections of the building where classes were being held. As a precautionary measure, students were told to evacuate the building and all classes were cancelled for the day.

The construction subsequently continued, however, the end result was a decidedly different looking UFA.  Sine the exterior walls of the old building under construction had been destroyed, a new, more modern looking facade was built.  After completion, half of the building retained the classic lines of the 1914 UFA, while the second half took on a more modernistic appearance.