Doane Academy is a coeducational independent private day school located in Burlington, New Jersey. It was founded as St. Mary's Hall in May 1837 by the Right Reverend George Washington Doane, the second Episcopal bishop of New Jersey, and is recognized as the first all-girls, academic boarding school in the United States. Originally founded to offer an education equal to that of men, it accepted girls and young women as undergraduates and postgraduates. In 1966 an all-boys school, Doane Academy, was opened in Burlington in association with St. Mary's Hall. In 1974, the two schools merged to form the co-educational St. Mary's Hall-Doane Academy.