 In his absence, education in the Fort Defiance area came to a standstill and he returned to Augusta County with renewed determination to establish a proper school for boys".In 1878 Roller chose a site three hundred yards above the west side of the Valley Pike toll road adjoining the Old Stone Church (now U. S. Route 11) as the place upon which to build his residence and Academy which was completed in 1879 as the Academy's first building.Over the next eighteen years Professor Roller constructed additional units for the Academy's programs and by 1897, a group of frame buildings stood in a line parallel to the Valley Pike occupying the same space now filled by the brick collegiate structures which replaced them in the early 20th century.