The school was located at a pier in Boston until 1936. It then was moved to Hyannis, MA on Cape Cod, where it remained until after World War II. In 1946, the Academy acquired land at the State Pier on Taylors Point in Buzzards Bay, MA at the southern end of the Cape Cod Canal with a berth deep enough to accommodate the USS Charleston, the school's new training ship. A classroom building was built, but life and education at the school continued to revolve around its training ships for the next 25 years.