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

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Coordinates: 43°11′41″N 71°34′35″W / 43.19472, -71.57639

This is about St. Paul's School in the United States. For other schools with the same name, see the disambiguation page.
St. Paul's School
Seal of St. Paul's
Ea discamus in terris quorum scientia perseveret in coelis
(Let us learn those things on Earth the knowledge of which continues in Heaven)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
Information
Religion Episcopal
Rector Bill Matthews '61
Faculty 106 total
Average class size 11 students
Student:teacher ratio 5:1
Average SAT scores (2006) 687 verbal
693 math
669 writing
Average ACT scores (2006) not applicable
Type Private, Boarding
Campus Rural, 2000 acres (8 km²)
Athletics 17 interscholastic, 8 club
Athletics conference ISL
Mascot Pelican
Color(s) Red & White
Established 1856
Enrollment 524 boarding
Homepage http://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 George Cheyne Shattuck of the Choate family of Massachusetts. The 2,000 acre (8 km²) New Hampshire campus currently serves 524 students. The school became co-educational in 1971 and is one of 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 $438.2 million as of June 30, 2007.

Contents

In 1856, prominent, Harvard-educated Boston physician George Cheyne Shattuck turned his country home in New Hampshire into a school for his two sons. Shattuck wanted his boys educated in the austere but bucolic countryside. A newly-appointed board of trustees eventually chose Henry Coit, a 24-year old clergyman who would preside over the school for its first 39 years.

Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, the school expanded. The school built, in 1882, the first squash courts in America. It established itself during the infancy of hockey in America as a power house — its Lower School Pond once held nine hockey rinks — that often played collegiate teams at Harvard and Yale.

In 1910, Samuel Drury took over for Henry Ferguson, who had succeeded Coit. 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, moral upstandingness. Accordingly, he presided over, among other things, the hiring of new, better teachers, the tightening of academic standards, and the dissolution of secret societies and their replacement with a student council. Drury also presided, in the 1920s and 1930s, over what August Hecksher, in his history of St. Paul’s, calls “the Augustan era.”

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.[1] 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 its first 19 girls in 1971.[2]

A new library — designed by Robert A. M. Stern and Carroll Cline[3] — opened in 1991; a $24 million new gym[4], in 2004. The school celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2006.

The Sheldon admissions building, formerly the school's library, peeks out from late spring foliage.
The Sheldon admissions building, formerly the school's library, peeks out from late spring foliage.

The school's rural 2000-acre (8 km²) campus is familiarly known as "Millville", after a now-abandoned mill whose relic still stands in the woods near the Lower School Pond. The overwhelming majority of the land comprises wild and wooded areas. The campus itself includes four ponds and the upper third of the Turkey River.

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 to the modern style of the Kittredge building.

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 theatre classes, in the New Space black-box theatre. The Schoolhouse, Moore and Payson form a quadrangle, along with Memorial Hall, the 600 seat theatre used for all school gatherings not suited to the chapel space.

The Ohrstrom library houses some 70,000 books and overlooks the Lower School Pond. Perhaps the focal point of the campus is the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, also known as the New Chapel. Constructed in the late 19th century, the Chapel was the first gothic revival chapel in America.

Students throw a "disc" (frisbee) around on the Chapel lawn on a warm spring day.
Students throw a "disc" (frisbee) around on the Chapel lawn on a warm spring day.

Every student enrolled at St. Paul's is required to board, regardless of how close he or she lives. This is intended to strengthen the sense of community St. Paul's prides itself for.

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, most school days 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 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 any three terms during their Fifth and Sixth Form years. 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, and the table is excused only after everyone has eaten.

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

The Alumni Parade (see below) from the all the way in the back.
The Alumni Parade (see below) from the all the way in the back.

St Paul's is home to many long-standing traditions. Near the start of the school year, the Rector announces a surprise holiday – Cricket Holiday – in morning Chapel. Classes are canceled for the day and the Rector leads new students and faculty on a tour of the woods surrounding the School. The Cricket Holiday tradition dates back to the first Rector, Henry Augustus Coit, who preferred cricket over baseball as a "more refined sport".

Winter and Spring Terms also have their own surprise holidays. 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. Late in Spring Term, the Rector calls another surprise holiday, which is named Rector's Recess.

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 is assigned to the same clubs as her relative.

The annual Inter-House Inter-Club 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 2-mile cross country race. The current student record is 9 minutes 46 seconds.

During a weekend in the Fall Term, the Student Council holds Fall Ball, a dinner/dance formal. No alcohol is served, but 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, every Humanities teacher assigns each student to deliver a speech of any topic during class-time. Students with notable speeches are encouraged to try out in a traditional school-wide speech contest called the Hugh Camp Cup. The best seven 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 6th Form Year.

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-be-graduated Sixth Form.

St. Paul's students once had a close relationship with jam bands like the Grateful Dead. Much of the lingo peculiar to St. Paul's originated in 1978 as the "Pyramid Dialect" among St. Paul's alumni on tour with the Grateful Dead in Egypt[5]. Phish played in the Upper (the school's dining hall) on May 19, 1990.

Malcolm Gordon coached ice hockey at the school for 29 years, and noted World War I fighter pilot Hobey Baker played under him. America’s first racquets[citation needed] and squash [6] courts were built at St. Paul’s in 1884.

The first hockey game in the United States was played on the ponds of St. Paul's School.

St. Paul's crew won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in the Henley Royal Regatta in 2004, beating Winchester College, St. Paul's School (UK) , Pangbourne College and Abingdon School.

In the film version of American Psycho, Patrick Bateman, the main character, notes to a detective that the co-worker he murdered attended St. Paul's before heading off to Yale.

The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul (also known as the New Chapel.)
The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul (also known as the New Chapel.)

  • 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

v • d • e
The Ten Schools Admissions Organization
Choate Rosemary Hall • Deerfield Academy • The Hill School • The Hotchkiss School • The Lawrenceville School • Loomis Chaffee • Phillips Academy Andover • Phillips Exeter Academy • St. Paul's School • The Taft School


Members of the Independent School League, New England
Belmont Hill School | Buckingham Browne & Nichols | Brooks School | The Governor's Academy | Groton School | Lawrence Academy at Groton | Middlesex School | Milton Academy | Noble and Greenough School | Rivers School | Roxbury Latin School | St. George's School | St. Mark's School | St. Paul's School | St. Sebastian's School | Thayer Academy

  1. ^ SPS Sesquicentennial Exhibit
  2. ^ Hecksher, August. A Brief History of St. Paul's: 1856-1996. Concord, New Hampshire: The Board of Trustees of St. Paul's School, © 1996.
  3. ^ New York Times: 'Carol Cline, 72; Added Light to Architecture'
  4. ^ New york Times: 'Turmoil Grips Elite School Over Money and Leaders
  5. ^ Shenk, D. and Silberman, S. Skeleton Key. Main Street Books, 1994
  6. ^ US Squash's history of the game
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul%27s_School_%28Concord%2C_New_Hampshire%29"
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