Editing Reisterstown, Maryland (section)

===Franklin Academy===
In 1764, John Reister purchased a three-quarter acre lot, which he named Church Hill, as a site for the community's first church, a small building constructed of logs. Funded and built by the [[Lutheran]] community, the church was free to all denominations. The building also served as a school house, a secondary function typical of churches at that time.<ref name="MacLeod">{{cite web |url=http://www.bcplonline.org/info/history/hist_re_history.html |title=Reister's Town |publisher=Baltimore County Public Library Online |date=April 2006 |access-date=2007-01-23 |author1=Linda MacLeod |author2=Ellen Saunders |author3=Marlene Kuhl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202073229/http://www.bcplonline.org/info/history/hist_re_history.html |archive-date=2007-02-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The town raised money with a public subscription and replaced the log building with a brick school building in 1824, named Franklin Academy in honor of [[Benjamin Franklin]]. A [[cupola]] was added to the school in 1826. Franklin Academy became the first public high school in the county in 1874 and one of the earliest schools to join the Baltimore County school system.

The former Franklin Academy was converted into a public library in the early 1900s.  It still stands beside the Reisterstown Community Cemetery, across the street from the present-day Franklin Middle School. Franklin Academy's cupola, known as the Franklin Bell, is in front of [[Franklin High School (Reisterstown, Maryland)|Franklin High School]].