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From the Archives: SPS Under Construction

Lisa Laughy — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:16:17 +0000

As construction continues on Dunbarton Road and the new Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science, it brings to mind other major construction projects from the history of St. Paul’s School. Although difficult to tell from inside or outside of the New Chapel, an entire section was added to the nave forty-two years after original construction began. The images below depict the expansion at its most dramatic point:

In 1928 the New Chapel was expanded to accommodate the increasing number of students at St. Paul’s School. The Sesquicentennial Exhibit offers this description of the photos:

In 1928 the Chapel was deconsecrated and workmen began to slice through the brick walls. The School held its collective breath as the eastern end of the vast structure, seemingly too narrow to hold itself erect, was slid upon tracks to its new location. The task of reconstruction then went forward as the void between the two parts of the old building was filled with Gothic tracery.

See if you can spot this particularly brave fellow in the picture above!

New Archives Online Exhibit: Places of Invention

Lisa Laughy — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:35:30 +0000

A new online exhibit, called Places of Invention: Science and Mathematics at St. Paul’s School, is now part of the Ohrstrom Library website. This online exhibit is based on a more in-depth Archives photograph exhibit now on display in the upper level of Ohrstrom Library. Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the online exhibit:

With construction of the Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science now well underway, it is fitting that the St. Paul’s School community reflects back upon the places that have served the study of science and mathematics so well throughout the School’s history.

Photos from the Archives were scanned specifically for the online exhibit including this image of a Biology classroom in the Westinghouse Lab:

The online exhibit features images ranging from the first science lab built on the St. Paul’s School grounds in 1889 to the architectural renderings of the Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science, now under construction. The main gallery of thumbnail images includes links to individual pages that feature larger images and brief descriptions. There is also a slideshow of the images that can be initiated from any of the pages in the exhibit.

Take a few moments to browse through the gallery of images and follow the development of the places that have helped to facilitate the high standard of education in mathematics and science that has been a part of the St. Paul’s School vision from its very beginning.

Visit the online exhibit by clicking HERE.

Visit the full Archives exhibit in the upper level lobby of Ohrstrom Library.

From the Archives: Dunbarton Road Construction

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:00:37 +0000

Dunbarton Road, once called New Dunbarton Road, is undergoing construction as part of the site preparation for the building of the Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science. Rectory Road, the original Dunbarton Road, was once the main route from Concord to Dunbarton and beyond. It wasn’t always the quiet roadway through the center of the grounds that it is today, and by the early years of the 20th century the increase in automobile traffic had become a menace. The New Dunbarton Road was opened in June of 1920 as a way to re-direct traffic away from the center of the grounds.

The images below were discovered in the Archives as part of a personal photo album given by an unknown donor. The photo album consists of several dozen black and white photographs of construction at SPS during the first few decades of the 20th century.

Clearing the way: A team of work horses is used to remove rocks from the road. The corner of the Red Barn can be seen on the left.

Grading the road: Alumni House is on the left and the Red Barn is on the right. The view is looking toward the entrance to the School.

Heavy metal: A close-up of the steam roller seen the previous image.

Read more about the history of the New Dunbarton Road in this Fall 2008 Alumni Horae article (PDF file) by clicking HERE.

From the Archives: Delphian Football Eleven, 1897

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:43:22 +0000

The following photo from the St. Paul’s School Archives, located in the basement of Ohrstrom Library, was scanned recently as part of the planning process for a digitization project. From time-to-time we will be sharing some of these newly scanned images on the Ohrstrom Blog to provide a glimpse into the wealth of visual history contained within the Archives’ photo collections.

The first photo in this blog series is of the Delphian Club football team from 1897. Each of the three clubs at St. Paul’s School – the Isthmian Club, the Old Hundred Club (both founded in 1859), and the Delphian Club (founded in 1888), had three strings of eleven players on their club football teams. This photo is likely of the first string, the Eleven I. It is easy to imagine that the Delphian Club colors of maroon and black are being worn in this photo.

Although there are no names listed on the photo itself, The Record, St. Paul’s School, 1898, lists the members of “The Delphian Club Foot-Ball Elevens, Fall, 1897″ as follows:

Henry Blackstone Farrar, Captain

Line: Prescott M. Metcalf, Ethelbert I. Low, Ernest T. H. Metcalf, Douglas Kimball, Peter F. Rothermel, Robert W. Glendinning, Franklin Farrel, Jr.

Quarter-Back: Henry B. Farrar

Half-Backs: William C. Douglas, William Frew

Full-Back: Lion Gardiner

Fall of 1897 was not a good season for the Delphians – they didn’t win any of the four games played, and scored zero points. An average of the previous ten years has them in better standing, winning 18 of a possible 38 games, and putting them second to the Isthmian’s record of 30 out of 38. This detail of the photo gives a better view of the clothing worn to play football at that time – very little padding and quite a few rips and tears.

New Archives Online Exhibit: The Rectors of SPS

Lisa Laughy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:05:39 +0000

Ohrstrom Library is pleased to announce the addition of a new archives online exhibit: The Rectors of St. Paul’s School.

Since its founding in 1856, St. Paul’s School is fortunate to have enjoyed strong leadership in its Rectors. The Rectors exhibit in the Archives section of Ohrstrom Library’s website presents the succession of these leaders through photographs and short biographies, and serves as a brief introduction to the fascinating history of leadership at St. Paul’s School.

Much of the text and perspectives shared in the brief biographies that accompany photographs of the Rectors were drawn directly from two authoritative and well-loved volumes about St. Paul’s School: A brief history of St. Paul’s School, 1856-1996 by August Heckscher (located in Ohrstrom at: 373 Sa2H) and St. Paul’s School, 1855 – 1934 by Arthur Stanwood Pier (located in Ohrstrom at: 373 Sa2). In addition to reading these two volumes, you can find even more fascinating detail on each of the Rectors by searching the Alumni Horae digital archive, accessible online by clicking HERE.

Reflections from the Horae: Ohrstrom Library, 1991

Lisa Laughy — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:09:44 +0000

Lisa Laughy – Archives Assistant

The following is an excerpt from an article found in the Alumni Horae Digital Archive, now available online. The Spring 1991 issue of the Alumni Horae celebrated the then newly completed and dedicated Ohrstrom Library. In her article, The Libraries of St. Paul’s School, Librarian Rosemarie Cassels-Brown wrote her reflections on the place Ohrstrom Library would fill in this ongoing history:

On a cold, sunny, but as yet snowless January day, just after the School returned from Christmas vacation, a colorful line of students and faculty, clad in parkas and heavy winter coats, stretched across from Sheldon to Ohrstrom. Piles of books were handed along, to be placed on the shelves in our new library. Conversations in the line were animated; the mood was one of celebration. . . . Although in terms of the number of books moved in this fashion it was a largely symbolic gesture, to those participating in the book brigade it meant: this is our library, . . .

I sometimes wonder, as I move through this extraordinary building or take visitors around, what those who dedicated so much of their time and energy to the library in the early years of the School would think if they could see our new Ohrstrom Library —a spacious building, full of light, where students and teachers can pursue serious research as well as read for pleasure; . . . I hope our predecessors might be persuaded that in spite of much that would be new or unfamiliar to them, we are still concerned to be “an effective agency in the literary culture of the [students].”

To read the full article click HERE to access the Alumni Horae Digital Archive, then under the “Browse” tab, in the “1990 – 1999″ folder, look for the “Spring 1991″ folder for The Libraries of St. Paul’s School article in that edition of the Alumni Horae.

Article Source:

Cassels-Brown, Rosemarie. “The Libraries of St. Paul’s School.” Alumni Horae
Spring 1991: 16. Alumni Horae Digital Archive. Ohrstrom Lib., St. Paul’s
School, Concord, NH. 2 June 2009 .

Alumni Horae Digital Archive Launch

Lisa Laughy — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:51:56 +0000

Lisa Laughy – Archives Assistant

Ohrstrom Library is proud to announce a special Anniversary Weekend preview of the newly launched Alumni Horae Digital Archive.

Alumni Horae, the St. Paul’s School alumni magazine, is published four times a year by the Alumni Association in order to engage the alumni community of SPS, to connect alumni to each other, and to enrich the School community. The magazine contains alumni news, features, book reviews, Form notes, and obituaries as well as information about current School life and athletics.

The entire print run of the St. Paul’s School alumni magazine, has been scanned and is now accessible online. Every issue of the Alumni Horae from 1921 to the present has been professionally scanned using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to create a searchable online database. The articles are also available in PDF format, which reproduces every page of the Alumni Horae as it was originally published, including all diagrams, tables, and photographs. The PDF files are available for downloading and printing.

Click HERE to access the Alumni Horae Digital Archive.

Click HERE to access the user’s guide to searching and browsing the archive.

Postcards from the Past: SPS Historic Postcard Exhibit

Lisa Laughy — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:00:35 +0000

Lisa Laughy - Archives Assistant

The Historic Postcard online exhibit has now been updated to reflect the redesign of the Ohrstrom Library website. Originally created in 2006, the exhibit has a new look as well as some new features.

Here is a description of the exhibit excerpted from the “About” page:

The SPS Historical Postcard exhibit presents images of St. Paul’s School from the late 1800s to the present. The scenes and buildings depicted by these postcards provide glimpses of the School as it has grown and changed over the decades. Images of vanished buildings, unfamiliar perspectives on buildings still in service, and of the School’s changing landscape (for example, the School’s stately elm trees from the days before Dutch Elm disease) offer an evocative mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar, and invite us to view the School today with a fresh perspective.

The exhibit contains 79 postcard images gathered from the SPS Archives and loaned by friends of St. Paul’s School. It includes individual pages for each postcard and a slideshow of all 79 postcard images. Images are of vistas of years past, including familiar as well as “vanished” buildings.

Read more about the Postcard Exhibit HERE.

Access the Postcard Exhibit Galleries and Slideshow HERE.

From the Archives: Hockey on Lower School Pond

Lisa Laughy — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:00:40 +0000

Lisa Laughy – Archives Assistant

SPS Students on Lower School Pond, Jan. 2009. Photo by Jana Brown.

One of the benefits of colder temperatures is thicker ice on Lower School Pond. Workers have carefully cleared the surface of the pond behind Ohrstrom Library and have set up nets and backboards for playing ice hockey. St. Paul’s School has a long and honored relationship with the sport, especially considering that SPS is credited as being the birthplace of hockey in the United States. Those first hockey games played in the early 1880s took place on the same pond as today, and that connection is maintained each winter when SPS students put skates to the ice on Lower School Pond.

There are a great number of images in the SPS Archives that document the history of hockey at the school. SPS Archivist David Levesque has assembled a select display of Archive materials in the lower level case located outside the Writing Lab. Take a moment to view the display next time you are in Ohrstrom.

Below are a few examples of images featured in the Sesquicentennial online exhibit:

Hockey Rinks on Lower School Pond

“Seven rinks and two practice rinks are seen on the Lower School Pond. The first ice hockey game in the United States was played at St. Paul’s on the Lower School Pond. The game was imported from nearby Quebec. The Athletic Association made the rules in 1884: eleven players on a side and goal posts to be ten feet apart. The puck was then called the “block.” Sportswriters called St. Paul’s “the cradle of American hockey” under the guidance and coaching of Malcolm K. Gordon of the Form of 1887 and faculty 1889-1917.”

Hockey Team

“An early hockey team poses on the ice with coach Malcolm Kenneth Gordon, Form of 1887, and a Master 1889-1917. Sportswriters called St. Paul’s “the cradle of American hockey” under the guidance and coaching of Malcolm Gordon, who coached such famed hockey players as Hobey Baker, who attended SPS from 1903-1910.”

Hockey Game on Lower School Pond

“Hockey as we know it was first played in the United States right here on Lower School Pond. It was imported from Canada in the 1880s when the Rev. James P. Conover (Master 1882-1915) visited Montreal. As he wrote in a letter, “I got sticks, pucks (wooden tubes covered with leather) and rules from Canada myself. We flooded the field just below the dam with a few inches of water so we had safe and early skating, and when it snowed we flooded over the snow…this worked beautifully till the ice got so thick it thawed out from the ground and floated, so we put teams on the pond…at first you may remember we marked the boundaries by beams laid on the ice…it must have been somewhere about 1885. Malcolm Gordon was another of the early hockey enthusiasts.” At first it had been an informal scrimmage on the ice, gradually settling into a more organized contest with eleven men to a side. In 1896 the Canadian version of the game, with seven men on each side, was adopted. That same year the school team played for the first time on the fabled St. Nicholas rink in New York against a group of alumni. The alumni won 3-1. But the encounter was a spectacular event, and the school was off upon a long career of hockey playing, which was to make it known in the sports world and to fill many of the places on the top college teams with skaters trained upon the Millville ice.”

From the Archives: The Big Study Fire of 1961

Lisa Laughy — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:00:17 +0000

Lisa Laughy -Archives Assistant

Forty eight years ago tonight The Big Study mysteriously caught fire and burned to the ground. The Big Study was located across from the Rectory between the Old and New Chapels, and was connected to the New Chapel by a cloister walkway. It was built in 1872-1873 and was enlarged in 1888, making it one of the older buildings still in existence on School grounds at that time.

The following description of the event is from August Heckscher’s book, A Brief History of St. Paul’s School (pgs. 134-135; Ohrstrom Call # 373 Sa2HB):

“The night of January 21, 1961, was one of the coldest in New Hampshire’s twentieth century history, twenty-five degrees below zero. That evening the school was gathered in Memorial Hall, absorbed in a film, Shake Hands with the Devil. In the Big Study a lone master, the art teacher Bill Abbe, was in his apartment. He noticed smoke rising through the hall outside. He knocked at the doors of the few apartments carved from the labyrinth of old classrooms; finding no one there, nor anywhere else in the building, he called the fire department, gathered a few of his belongings, and made for the outdoors . . .

It was already too late to save the building. Firemen battled against the insuperable odds of sub-zero temperatures, the water from their hoses freezing into grotesquely-formed icicles, while the interior became an inferno. Late in the night, flames creeping unseen through a vault of the adjacent cloister were discovered by one of the boys, who, by giving the alarm, undoubtedly saved the chapel. Awed by the fury of the conflagration, students, faculty, and all the school community stood silently in the arctic cold.”