History & Mission
A Short History of the School
Choate Rosemary Hall’s more than 400 acres encompass a blend of architectural styles from Colonial homes and Georgian buildings to dramatic modern structures.
But what appears to be the result of a clear design in fact developed quite gradually. In 1890 the crossroads of Christian and Elm Streets, now the main arteries through campus, were quiet, unpaved roads. That year, Mary Atwater Choate hired a young scholar from England, Caroline Ruutz-Rees, to be headmistress of a new school for girls. Named Rosemary Hall after the Atwater family farm, the school's main building was the old Atwater house, one of the family's several residences.
Ten years later, Caroline Ruutz-Rees would move Rosemary Hall to Greenwich, where it would develop independently for 71 years and attain a national reputation, with Miss Ruutz-Rees herself teaching Latin, Greek, French literature, history, and “feminism by indirection.”
In the meantime, Mary Atwater Choate and her husband, Judge William G. Choate, had founded a second school in 1896, this time for boys. Mark Pitman was The Choate School's first headmaster.
Growing A School
By 1904, Choate's had grown from four boys to 40. After Mark Pitman's death the following year and the short tenure of an interim headmaster, Judge Choate appointed George St. John as headmaster in 1908. St. John recalls his first impressions of the campus: “There was no way to know [Choate] was a school, except for an athletic field in front. Its wooden houses were separated by private houses.” In sum, “there was little that . . . bespoke a school.”
During his 40 years as headmaster, St. John would change all that. As the school grew to 550 students in 1948, he moved more than a dozen houses around the campus, purchased two dozen more along with hundreds of acres of land, and erected the eight brick Georgian buildings that indeed, in his words, “bespeak a school.”
Bricks and Mortar
In 1947, Seymour St. John ’31 succeeded his father, leading the school for 26 years. He focused on broadening and deepening the curriculum, and solidified Choate’s national reputation. His efforts led to additions to the Andrew Mellon Library, the Chapel, and three existing dormitories; and the construction of seven new dormitories. An administration building and the classroom building named for his parents were also added.
Seymour St. John’s tenure culminated in a period of rapid expansion that began with the construction of the modern buildings that would house Rosemary Hall upon its return to Wallingford in 1971. The Paul Mellon Arts Center, completed in 1973, formed the link between the two schools that would soon become Choate Rosemary Hall.
Changing of the Guard
In 1973, Charles Dey, then an associate dean at Dartmouth College, was hired to make Choate and Rosemary Hall—now grown to 1,000 boys and girls—a united school.
The Carl C. Icahn Center for Science, dedicated in 1989, ushered in the school’s second century. A year later, the old Science Hall was rededicated as the Paul Mellon Humanities Center, and now houses the English and the History, Philosophy, Religion, and Social Studies Departments
Into the 21 st Century
Current headmaster Edward J. Shanahan, who took office in July 1991, was formerly Dean of the College at Dartmouth. Headmaster Shanahan quickly began preparation for long-range planning and curricular revision. He developed The Plan for Choate Rosemary Hall, The Campus Master plan for renovations and other improvements to the physical plant, and presided over the implementation of the Board of Trustees’ decision to reduce the size of the student body to 850. The five-year $100 million capital campaign A Shared Commitment: Campaign for Choate Rosemary Hall, a focus in the mid-to-late 90s, raised $135 million.
Mission
Two interwoven priorities define the Choate experience: a rigorous academic curriculum and an emphasis on the formation of character in a setting that allows teachers and students to live with, and learn from, each other.
The curriculum aspires to prepare intellectually motivated students from diverse backgrounds to seek knowledge for its own sake and to pursue further study at the finest colleges and universities by teaching them to:
- think critically and to communicate clearly;
- understand various methods of intellectual inquiry and their connections to each other;
- recognize the interconnections of learning;
- work independently and in partnership with others;
- develop a global perspective on cultural, social, political, and environmental issues;
- appreciate the importance of beauty and grace in their lives; and
- achieve distinction in accordance with their individual interests and talents.
The community is committed to development of character — in classrooms, on playing fields, in residential houses, so that students grow in confidence and self-esteem, and are instilled with such fundamental values as honesty, integrity, teamwork, generosity, and compassion toward others.