St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire)

:"This is about St. Paul's School in the United States. For other schools with the same name, see the disambiguation page.Infobox Private School
background = #f0f6fa
border = #ccd2d9
name = St. Paul's School


established = 1856
type = Private, Boarding
religion = Episcopal
head_name = Rector
head = Bill Matthews '61
city = Concord
state = NH
country = USA
motto = "Ea discamus in terris quorum scientia perseveret in coelis"
(Let us learn those things on Earth the knowledge of which continues in Heaven)
campus = Rural, 2000 acres (8 km²)
enrollment = 524 boarding
faculty = 106 total
class = 11 students
ratio = 5:1
year = 2006
SAT = 687 verbal
693 math
669 writing
ACT = not applicable
athletics = 17 interscholastic, 8 club
colors = Red & White
mascot = Pelican
conference = ISL
homepage = http://www.sps.edu/|www.sps.edu/

St. Paul's School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire affiliated with the Episcopal Church.It was founded in 1856 by a Boston Brahmin, George Cheyne Shattuck of the Choate family of Massachusetts. The 2,000 acre (8 km²) New Hampshire campus currently serves 533 students. The school became co-educational in 1971 and is one of only six remaining 100% residential boarding schools in the U.S. The student body hails from all over the United States and the world.

St. Paul's is a member of the Independent School League, the oldest independent school athletic association in the United States. St. Paul's is also part of an organization known as The Ten Schools Admissions Organization.

The school's endowment stood at $442 million as of June 30, 2008.

History

In 1856, Harvard-educated Boston physician George Cheyne Shattuck turned his country home in New Hampshire into a school for boys which included his two sons. Shattuck wanted his boys educated in the austere but bucolic countryside. A newly-appointed board of trustees chose Henry Coit, a 24-year old clergyman, to preside over the school for its first 39 years. [Hecksher, August. "A Brief History of St. Paul's: 1856-1996". Concord, New Hampshire: The Board of Trustees of St. Paul's School, © 1996.]

Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, the school expanded. In 1884, it built the first squash courts in America. St. Paul's is well known as the birthplace of U.S. ice hockey as the first games were played on the frozen school ponds in the 1870's. Its Lower School Pond at one time held nine hockey rinks. The school quickly established itself in America as a powerhouse that often played collegiate teams at Harvard and Yale. "See the Athletics section." [Ibid.]

In 1910, Samuel Drury took over as rector. Drury, who had served as missionary in the Philippines, found St. Paul’s in almost all aspects – student body, faculty, and curriculum – severely lacking the serious commitment to academic pursuits and moral upstandingness. Accordingly, he presided over, among other things, the hiring of better teachers, the tightening of academic standards, and the dissolution of secret societies and their replacement with a student council. Drury also presided over the school throughout the 1920s and 1930s during what August Hecksher called the school's “Augustan era.” [Ibid.]

Thirty years later, the 1960s ushered in a turbulent period for St. Paul’s. In 1968, students wrote an acerbic manifesto describing the school administration as an oppressive regime. As a result of this manifesto, seated meals were reduced from three times a day to four times a week, courses were shortened to be terms (rather than years) long, Chapel was reduced to four times a week, and the school's grading system was changed to eliminate + and - grades and given its current High Honors, Honors, High Pass, Pass, and Unsatisfactory labels instead of A-F. [ [http://library.sps.edu/exhibits/sesquicentennial/Exhibit6/49Formof1968.htm SPS Sesquicentennial Exhibit] ] By the end of the sixties, St. Paul’s had begun to admit sizable numbers of minorities in every class, had secularized its previously strict religious schedule considerably, expanded its course offerings, and was poised to begin coeducation. It admitted girls for the first time in 1971. [Hecksher, August. "A Brief History of St. Paul's: 1856-1996". Concord, New Hampshire: The Board of Trustees of St. Paul's School, © 1996.]

A new library — designed by Robert A. M. Stern and Carroll Cline [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEEDB1739F934A15751C0A9669C8B63 New York Times: 'Carol Cline, 72; Added Light to Architecture', 27 Feb 2000] ] — opened in 1991; a $24 million gym [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/education/21paul.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times: 'Turmoil Grips Elite School Over Money and Leaders 21 Nov 2004] ] opened in 2004. The school celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2006.

Millville

.

There are 18 dorms, nine boys' and nine girls', which each house between 20 and 40 students and are vertically integrated: every dorm has members of all four classes. The architecture of the dormitories varies from the collegiate Gothic style of the "Quad" dorms (built in 1927) [ [http://library.sps.edu/exhibits/stern/olmsted.shtml Stern, Robert A.M. 'The Architecture of St. Paul's School and the Design of the Ohrstrom Library'] ] to the spare, modern style of the Kittredge building (built in the early seventies.) [ [http://library.sps.edu/exhibits/stern/late60s.shtml Ibid.] ]

Classes are held in six buildings: language and humanities classes meet in the Schoolhouse; math classes in Moore; science classes in Payson; visual arts in Hargate; music and ballet classes in the Oates Performing Arts Center; and theater classes, in the New Space black box theater. The Schoolhouse, Moore and Payson form a quadrangle, along with Memorial Hall, the 600-seat theater used for all school gatherings not suited to the chapel space.

The Ohrstrom library houses some 70,000 books [ [http://www.sps.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=6545 'Academics: Ohrstrom Library' from the school's website] ] and overlooks the Lower School Pond. Perhaps the focal point of the campus is the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, constructed in the late 19th century, also known as the New Chapel.

Daily life

Like many private schools in its area, St. Paul's operates on a six-day school week, meaning that classes meet on Saturday. Wednesdays and Saturdays, however, are half-days, with athletic games in the afternoons. The school, like most high schools in America, has four grades, known at St. Paul's as "forms". "Third Form" corresponds to ninth grade, up through "Sixth Form", which corresponds to twelfth grade.

For Paulies, as St. Paul's students are colloquially known, the four full days each week begin with Chapel. The mandatory interfaith half-hour meeting involves a reading, speech or music presentation, and community-wide announcements.

St. Paul's conducts all its classes (with the exception of science, modern languages, and some math classes) using the Harkness method, which encourages discussion between students and the teacher, and between students. The average class size according to the School's website is 10-12 students.

Rather than having physical education classes, St. Paul's requires all its students to play sports for all six terms of their Third and Fourth form years, and for three terms during their Fifth and Sixth Form years, at least two of which must be during Fifth Form. These sports range from a sometime world-champion crew to an intramural club hockey team.

Twice a week, students attend seated meal, which requires formal attire. Seven students and a faculty member are randomly assigned to each table for a family-style dinner, and the table is excused only after everyone has eaten. Afterwards there is socializing for the students in the Coit common room.

In the evenings, meetings are held for clubs and activities, music ensembles like the Chorus and Band, theater rehearsals, a cappella groups (the all-male Testostertones, the all-female Mad Hatters, and the co-ed Deli Line), the Debate Team, and other extracurriculars.

Traditions

as a "more refined sport".

During February, the Missionary Society (the school's community service organization) plans and announces Mish Holiday. The holiday is announced the day before, the evening is given over to a theme dance, and the next day is a day off from school. The Missionary Society is known for using extravagant stunts when announcing its holiday, which in recent years have included fireworks over the Lower School Pond, or a plane trailing a "Happy Mish!" banner.

Students who participate in club sports (intramural) at St. Paul's are assigned to one of three teams for their time at St. Paul's—"Isthmian," "Delphian" or "Old Hundred". Students also are assigned to one of two "Boat Clubs""—"Halcyon" or "Shattuck". If a descendant of a graduate attends the school, she or he is assigned to the same clubs as her or his relative.

The annual Inter-House Inter-Club Race, known among students as the Dorm Run, takes place late in Fall Term, usually in early to mid-November. Students are invited to earn points for their dorm and club by running in a convert|2|mi|km|sing=on cross country race. The current student record is 9:48, set in 2006 by Peter Harrison '07. [ [http://www.sps.edu/common/news_detail.asp?newsid=412066&L4=2&tabs=athletics SPS Today: 'School Pride Shows in Annual Club/House Race', 15 Nov 2007] ]

During a weekend in the Fall Term, the Student Council holds Fall Ball, a dinner/dance formal. Each dorm's prefects set their new students up with seniors of the opposite sex from other dorms.

During the Winter Term, the school holds the annual Fiske Cup Competition. Each dorm is given the opportunity to produce a student-directed and -performed play. Most plays are held in dorm common rooms. Recent winning productions have been "The Bible Abridged", "The Full Monty", and "A Few Good Men".

During the Spring, the school holds a school-wide public speaking contest called the Hugh Camp Cup. The best speeches are then selected to be delivered to the entire school, and then the student body votes for the best speech. The winner's name is engraved on the prize. John Kerry achieved this distinction during his sixth form year. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/politics/campaign/16KERR.html?ei=5007&en=593f16659e200f0d&ex=1400040000&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=print&position= New York Times: 'Prep School Peers Found Kerry Talented, Ambitious and Apart', 16 May 2004] ]

On the last night of every term, students gather in the Chapel at 9 p.m. for the Last Night service, a short service held on the last evening of every term. At the Last Night service for Spring Term, the last night of school before summer vacation, the Faculty lines up outside the Chapel after the service and students shake hands with every member as they exit.

A more emotional Last Night service than this one occurs on the Sixth Formers' Last Night at St. Paul's, the night before graduation. Sixth Formers gather as a class in the Old Chapel. At the conclusion of the service, the rest of the student body is waiting outside. This is generally when Sixth Formers say their official goodbyes to the rest of the student body.

During Anniversary Weekend, held on the first weekend of June, alumni converge on the school for get-togethers, reunions, and the annual Alumni Parade. Each Form (class) marches down Chapel Road in chronological order, starting with the oldest living alumni. In the back of this long column is the about-to-graduate Sixth Form.

St. Paul's students once had a close relationship with jam bands like the Grateful Dead. Some of the lingo peculiar to St. Paul's originated as the "Pyramid Dialect" among St. Paul's students and alumni who went on tour with the Grateful Dead. [Shenk, D. and Silberman, S. "Skeleton Key". Main Street Books, 1994] Phish played in the Upper Dining Hall on May 19, 1990. [ [http://www.mockingbirdfoundation.org/setlists/1990.html Mockingbird Setlists: Phish 1990] ]

Athletics

Malcolm Gordon coached ice hockey at the school for 29 years, and noted World War I fighter pilot Hobey Baker played under him. The world's first squash courts outside the UK were built at St. Paul’s in 1884. [ [http://www.us-squash.org/ussra/squash-history-zug.html US Squash's history of the game] ] [ [http://www.squashtalk.com/html/columns/zug8.htm James Zug: 'Barking Elbows: The First Squash Courts in America'] ]

St. Paul's was an early cradle for ice hockey in America. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/realestate/06scap.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times: 'A Skating Rink/Boxing Ring, And a Wild and Crazy Facade', 6 Feb 2005] ] By some accounts, the first hockey game in the United States between students was played on the ponds at St. Paul's in 1883. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/politics/campaign/16KERR.html?ei=5007&en=593f16659e200f0d&ex=1400040000&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=print&position= New York Times: 'Prep School Peers Found Kerry Talented, Ambitious and Apart', 16 May 2004] ] [ [http://www.sps.edu/common/news_detail.asp?newsid=254014&L1=&L2=&tabs=news SPS Today: 'NH Hockey Legends Celebrates School's Role in Sport's History', 29 Mar 2006] ] [ [http://www.theconcordinsider.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071211/THECONCORDINSIDER/712110442/1299/REPOSITORY Concord Insider: 'Visit "the cradle of American hockey"', 11 Dec 2007] ] The school was an established leader in the sport in the early twentieth century, playing and beating collegiate teams, including Harvard [New York Times: 'St. Paul's Beats Harvard at Hockey', 12 Feb 1908] and Princeton. [New York Times: 'SCHOOLBOY SEVEN OUTPLAYS NASSAUS; St. Paul's Hockey Team Scores Victory by 9 to 1 at St. Nicholas Rink', 21 December 1917]

St. Paul's crew won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in the Henley Royal Regatta in 1994 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDB1138F932A35752C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=9# New York Times: '1994 THE YEAR IN REVIEW; From Archery to Paddleball to Yachting, Winners All', 1 Jan 1995] ] and again in 2004, beating Winchester College, St. Paul's School (UK) , Pangbourne College, and Abingdon School. [ [http://www.hrr.co.uk/thisyear/display.php?year=2004&event=The+Princess+Elizabeth+Challenge+Cup+%28Junior+M8%2B%29&crew_name=&submit=Go Henley Royal Regatta results] ] .

Notable alumni

* Norman Armour SPS Form of 1905, US ambassador
* John Jacob Astor IV, member of the Astor family who died on the RMS "Titanic"
* Hobey Baker 1909, renowned hockey star and World War I hero
* E. Digby Baltzell 1932, sociologist responsible for popularizing the term WASP
* Henry Lord Boulton 1948, Venezuelan businessman
* Charles Best 1994, founder of DonorsChoose
* Roland Betts 1964, CEO of Chelsea Piers Ltd and major Republican Party contributor
* Lorene Cary 1974, author of "Black Ice", an autobiography detailing her experiences with the school; founder of [http://www.artsanctuary.org Art Sanctuary] in Philadelphia
* Parker Corning 1893, US Congressman from New York
* Archibald Cox 1930, Watergate Special Prosecutor
* Nick Craw 1955, Executive Director of the Peace Corps
* Clarence Day 1892, humorist, author, and playwright
* Harmar D. Denny, Jr., US Congressman from Pennsylvania
* A. Peter Dewey, first American casualty in Vietnam
* Marshall Dodge 1953, Yankee humorist
* Annie Duke, Tournament poker champion, winner of the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions (2004)
* Thomas A. Edison, Jr. 1895, son of the inventor Thomas Edison
* John Franklin Enders 1915, Nobel laureate in physiology/medicine
* Hamilton Fish Jr. 1890, first American to die in the Spanish-American War while charging San Juan Hill
* James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. politician, son of US President James A. Garfield
* Jeff Giuliano 1998, National Hockey League (NHL) player
* Malcolm Gordon 1887, member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame
* Kevin Gover 1974, Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, former Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs
* Frank Tracy Griswold III 1955, 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
* A. R. Gurney 1948, an American playwright and novelist
* Jeff Halpern 1994, NHL player
* Edward Harkness 1893, philanthropist after whom the Harkness table is named
* William Randolph Hearst 1881, newspaper publisher (Didn't graduate)
* Amory Houghton Sr. 1917, US Ambassador to France
* Amory "Amo" Houghton Jr. 1945, former member of the US House of Representatives (R-NY) and former CEO of Corning Glass Works
* Clement Hurd 1926, author and illustrator of children's books, including "Goodnight Moon"
* John G. W. Husted, Jr., first fiancé of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
* Andrew John Kauffman 1934, one of the only two Americans to complete the first ascent of an 8,000 meter peak (Gasherbrum I)
* Rich Keefe 2002, radio personality for Sports Radio WGAM The Game
* Michael Kennedy 1976, son of Robert F. Kennedy
* John Kerry 1962, U.S. Senator (D-MA) and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee
* James W. Kinnear 1946, former President & CEO, Texaco, Inc.
* Benjamin Kunkel, author and critic
* Beirne Lay, Jr. 1927, author and writer, "Twelve O'Clock High"
* Howard Lederer, Tournament poker champion, winner of two World Series of Poker tiles, and two World Poker Tour titles
* John Lindsay 1940, U.S. Congressman, former Mayor of New York City
* Minoru Bernard Makihara 1950, former CEO, Mitsubishi Corporation
* Michel McQueen Martin 1976, journalist for ABC and NPR
* Burnet Maybank III 1974, lawyer, author, and first head of the South Carolina Department of Revenue
* Ian Mckee, winner of the second season of "The Bachelorette"
* Rick Moody 1979, novelist, author of "The Ice Storm"
* Paul Moore, Jr. 1937, XIII Episcopal Bishop of New York
* J. P. Morgan, Jr. 1884, banker and philanthropist
* Samuel Eliot Morison, author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Harvard professor
* Robert Mueller 1962, current director of the FBI
* Philip Neal 1986, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet
* Judd Nelson 1978, actor, "The Breakfast Club", "Making the Grade"
* Catherine Oxenberg 1979, actress
* Lewis Thompson Preston 1944, President of the World Bank
* Jonathan Reckford 1980, CEO of Habitat for Humanity
* Edmund Maurice Burke Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy 1905, Conservative MP, British Peer, and maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales
* Charles Scribner III 1909, President of Charles Scribner's Sons
* Roger Shattuck, Proust scholar
* Don Sweeney 1984, NHL player
* Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. 1922, Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts
* William Howard Taft IV 1962, Deputy Secretary of Defense, NATO Ambassador
* William Davis Taylor 1950, publisher of "The Boston Globe"
* Augusta Read Thomas, composer of orchestral music; Chair of the Board of the American Music Center
* Sir Henry Worth Thornton, President, Canadian National Railway; Vanderbilt University football coach 1894; knighted by George V
* Garry Trudeau 1966, Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doonesbury" cartoonist
* Cornelius Vanderbilt III
* James Vanderbilt 1994, Hollywood screenwriter
* Sheldon Whitehouse 1973, U.S. Senator (D-RI)
* John Gilbert Winant 1909, twice Governor of New Hampshire, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom during World War II
* Owen Wister, American writer
* Alan "Scooter" Zackheim 2001, winner of the third season of "Beauty and the Geek"
* Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. 1936, film and television actor

Notable faculty

* Gerry Studds, who later served as U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts
* Richard Lederer, English teacher and compiler of humorous errors in the use of the English language

See also

*Boarding school
*St. Grottlesex, a colloquial expression for several of the area's prep schools

External links

* [http://www.sps.edu/ St. Paul's School website]
* [http://www.schoolfair.tv/nh_stpaul.html St. Paul's School admissions video on SchoolFair.tv]
* [http://library.sps.edu/exhibits/sesquicentennial/index.htm Ohrstrom Library's page celebrating St. Paul's School's Sesquicentennial (150 year anniversary) with history and historical photographs]
* [http://www.ramsa.com/project.aspx?id=117 Page on the Ohrstrom Library by the firm that designed it]
* [http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/19 Boarding School Review]
* [http://www.artsanctuary.org/ Alumna Lorraine Cary's Art Sanctuary]

References