From the Application for NRHP status, 1984

    Camp Academy is an imposing, two-story brick structure prominently sited on a low ridge just north of Highway NC 63 one mile west of the unincorporated village of Leicester in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Mature forest forms a backdrop for the building. A grassy lawn extends from its porch to the highway two hundred feet away. A new asphalt drive and parking area provide access to the building from its downhill, east, side. Azaleas have recently been planted at the perimeter of the porch.

   Originally constructed as a private academy, the building was being used as an apartment house when it was purchased by a Sufi organization in 1983 and rehabilitated for use as a medical clinic. A split-level home constructed on its west side around 1980 has been excluded from the nominated property.

   Camp Academy is a vernacular Colonial Revival style structure. It is a two-story cubical mass, built of local brick laid in American bond, surrounded on two full sides, and part of a third, by a one-story porch. Its five-bay facade rises to a simple boxed cornice and a gable-on-hip roof. The central, entrance bay is set off by plain brick pilasters and by two pedimented gables, one at eave-height and another over a set of concrete steps that ascend to the porch. Brick pilasters also articulate the building's four corners.

   The recent rehabiliation sought to retain the building's original exterior appearance. The building was given a new roof of "stamped tin" shingles. Two interior chimneys rise on either end wall. The east chimneys retain their original corbeled heads. The west chimneys have plain heads.

   The structure's windows contribute significantly to its appearance. All second-floor windows are six-over-six double-hung sash in round-arch openings. All first-floor windows are four-over-four sash in segmental-arch openings. The entrance composition is also in a segmental-arch opening. It features a broadly-glazed single door (recent) surrounded by simple sidelights and an arched four-light transom.

   Secondary exits occur at ground floor on the east elevation and at the second-floor on the north. A new metal fire escape provides egress from this second-floor exit on the rear of the building. An original ground-floor doorway on the rear of the building has been filled in and covered with white stucco.

   The prominent, wrap-around porch is supported by simple, boxed columns. Between the columns runs a balustrade of close-set square pickets and unmolded (sic) hand and toe rails.

   The building's interior arrangement reflects its original use as a school. On the ground floor a broad, central stair hall separates two groups of four similar size rooms, two deep and two abreast. A narrow cross hall in turn separates the four west rooms into two sets of two. The second floor followed a less regular plan--basically seven rooms created at the building's perimeter, four on the east end served by a narrow cross hall and three on the west end accessible from an irregularly-shaped landing at the top of the stairs.

   The recent rehabilitation retained all the original partitions and subdivided some spaces to create smaller examining rooms and offices. A reception station on a raised platform was created in the stair hall just inside the front door. In order that the hallway could retain its original sense of space a framed glass partition was used to separate the reception area from the entrance.   

   The closed-stringer stairway ascends along the west wall of the hallway toward an intermediate landing at the rear of the building. Its railing is composed of turned balusters and a molded handrail. All newels are boxed, with chamfered edges and simple molded caps. The railing encloses the stair well in the second-floor hall and must be considered one of the building's prime interior features.

   All interior door and window surrounds are plain, featuring a raised backband only. The doors themselves, typical for the period, are composed of either five or six horizontal panels. All interior doors on the ground floor have glazed transoms.

   The original pine flooring was covered with carpeting during the recent rehabilitation work. Most interior wall surfaces, originally plastered, were covered with sheetrock. Dropped ceilings were introduced. Broad baseboards with molded caps were retained in place.

   Camp Academy is a sturdy, handsome structure which immediately assumed landmark status when it was constructed along the busy Leicester Highway in rural Buncombe County in 1897. Though appreciated as a substantial building with considerable local significance, it was underutilized and threatened by poor maintenance in recent years until becoming the subject of a major rehabilitation effort in 1983. The 1983 project was conceived and executed in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Historic Preservation Projects. It has returned the building to active service to the community while retaining all of the physical features which distinguished it originally. The project has been viewed as a model for successful adaptive reuse in the area.