Valley Forge Military Academy was founded in 1928 by Lieutenant General Milton G. Baker, Pennsylvania Guard (Retired). For the first five months of its existence, the school was located in Devon, Pennsylvania, on the south side of Berkley Road, between Dorset and Waterloo roads, which is several miles away from the campus’s current location.
After a fire during the night of January 17–18, 1929 destroyed the original single-building campus, the former Devon Park Hotel, the academy was moved to its present site in Wayne, Pennsylvania, the former Saint Luke’s School. The highest decoration in the institution, the Order of Anthony Wayne, was made in tribute to the heroism of the first Corps of Cadets on the night that the first campus burned down.
Initially, General Baker devised an American Revolutionary War motif for the school. The school colors are buff and blue, the colors of the uniforms of the Continental Army. The buildings in the Wayne campus were named for Revolutionary War leaders. At the same time, the academy modeled uniforms, crest, Alma Mater, and rank structure on those of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
During the 1935–1936 school year, Baker expanded the academy to include a two-year college program, with the first college cadets joining the corps that year. Subsequently, the school was known as Valley Forge Military Academy and Junior College.