The Lunenburg Academy stands at the top of the hill above the harbour, its black and white Victorian exterior making it one of the most distinctive buildings on the Nova Scotia South Shore. Built in 1895, it served as the town's high school for generations and is now a National Historic Site. The building combines Italianate and Second Empire architectural elements with the kind of ornate detail that 19th-century school boards occasionally approved when civic pride ran high.
The views from the area around the academy are among the best in town — looking down over the coloured wooden houses of the heritage district to the harbour and the blue Atlantic beyond. The building itself is not generally open to casual visitors, but the exterior and the surrounding grounds are worth the ten-minute uphill walk from the waterfront.