Avon Old Farms
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, motto_translation = Aspiring and Persevering , address = 500 Old Farms Road , city = Avon , state = Connecticut , zipcode = 06001 , country = United States , coordinates = , type =
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
boarding
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
, established = , founder =
Theodate Pope Riddle Theodate Pope Riddle (February 2, 1867 – August 30, 1946) was an American architect and philanthropist. She was one of the first American women architects and a survivor of the sinking of the RMS ''Lusitania''. Life Born Effie Brooks Pope ...
, ceeb = 070010 , head_of_school = Jim Detora , faculty = 60 teachers , grades = 912 , gender = All-boys , enrollment = 406 students (9–12, PG)
81% Boarding , enrollment_as_of = 2019–2020 , average_class_size = 11 , ratio = 6:1 , campus_size = , colors = Crimson and navy blue
, athletics = 15 varsity interscholastic sports teams (36 interscholastic teams total) , athletics_conference =
Founders League The Founders League is an American athletic league comprising a number of college preparatory schools. Founded in 1984, it consists of ten schools in Connecticut and one from eastern New York. All of the schools in the Conference are founding memb ...
, nickname = Winged Beavers , newspaper = , endowment = $57 million , revenue = $34.3 million , website = Avon Old Farms School is a single-sex
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
for boys located in
Avon, Connecticut Avon ( ) is a town in the Farmington Valley region of Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 18,932. History Avon was settled in 1645 and was originally a part of neighboring Farmington, ...
, United States.
Theodate Pope Riddle Theodate Pope Riddle (February 2, 1867 – August 30, 1946) was an American architect and philanthropist. She was one of the first American women architects and a survivor of the sinking of the RMS ''Lusitania''. Life Born Effie Brooks Pope ...
, one of America's first female architects, founded the school in 1927.


History

The school's conception dates to a few years before 1918 when Riddle purchased of land on which to build it. Together with the architect
Charles A. Platt Charles Adams Platt (October 16, 1861 – September 12, 1933) was a prominent American architect, garden designer, and artist of the "American Renaissance" movement. His garden designs complemented his domestic architecture. Early career Pai ...
, she toured a number of boys' schools in New England, including
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,
Groton School Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliated ...
,
Hotchkiss School The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational University-preparatory school#North America, preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It i ...
,
Middlesex School Middlesex School is a coeducational, non-sectarian, day and boarding independent secondary school for grades 9-12 located in Concord, Massachusetts. It was founded as an all-boys school in 1901 by a Roxbury Latin School alumnus, Frederick Winsor, ...
,
Pomfret School Pomfret School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory boarding and day school in Pomfret, Connecticut, United States, serving 350 students in grades 9 through 12 and post-graduates. Located in the Pomfret Street Historic District, t ...
, St. Mark's School, and St. Paul's School, but as she wrote to a friend, "They all illustrate exceedingly well the things I wish to avoid." In 1918 she created the Pope-Brooks Foundation, to manage both her house, Hill-Stead and its artworks, and the as-yet unformed new school. The school's earliest buildings, which she designed, were constructed from 1923 to 1926 by over 500 workers from America and the
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. For her designs Riddle was elected a Fellow of the
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
, and awarded the Robinson Memorial Medal of the Architectural Club of New Haven. The school opened in the autumn of 1927 with 48 students, who were expected to plant gardens, raise poultry, and work in the dairy and machine shop, smithy, carpenter shop, electrical laboratory, and print shop. It was "organized and governed on the lines of a village political unit, the four upper forms (grades 9-12) being eligible for office as citizens". The school's earliest days were marked by vigorous disagreements between Riddle and the school's board and members. Its first board was created in September 1926 but immediately dismissed by Riddle when it refused to grant her absolute control over all aspects of the school, including her dictum that "there will be no gymnasium and no indoor inter-school athletics". The school was then run directly by the Pope-Brooks foundation. Its first Provost (headmaster), John Mitchell Froelicher, served from 1927 to 1929, when he was dismissed. After several abortive attempts to find a replacement, Reverend Percy Gamble Kammerer was named Provost in August 1930. He served until January 1940, when he was forced to resign. That summer, Rev. W. Brooke Stabler was named as his replacement. He, too, had disagreements with Riddle, who was unbending in her authority, and in March 1944, he resigned. At this event, the entire faculty resigned en masse. Starting in June 1944, during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the campus was reworked to serve as the Old Farms Convalescent Hospital for blind veterans. Riddle died in 1946, the hospital wound down in 1947, and in 1948 the Avon Old Farms School resumed operation under Provost Donald W. Pierpoint.


Athletics

Avon Old Farms is in the
Founders League The Founders League is an American athletic league comprising a number of college preparatory schools. Founded in 1984, it consists of ten schools in Connecticut and one from eastern New York. All of the schools in the Conference are founding memb ...
. Avon
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
teams have won eight Division 1 New England Championships (five between 2004 and 2010). In the 2015–16 season, the Winged Beavers won the Founders League and landed third in the USHR standings. On December 21, 2009, Avon played
Taft School The Taft School is a private, coeducational school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. It teaches students in 9th through 12th grades and post-graduates. About three-quarters of Taft's roughly 600 students live on the school's ...
in the first hockey game played at
Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Base ...
. In 2015, the Avon lacrosse team won the Western New England and the
Founders League The Founders League is an American athletic league comprising a number of college preparatory schools. Founded in 1984, it consists of ten schools in Connecticut and one from eastern New York. All of the schools in the Conference are founding memb ...
. The 2015 team was also rated as the number one team in New England and one of the best programs in the "Elite 25" by ''
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''.


Notable alumni


References


External links

* {{authority control Avon, Connecticut Boys' schools in the United States Boarding schools in Connecticut Educational institutions established in 1927 Schools in Hartford County, Connecticut Private high schools in Connecticut 1927 establishments in Connecticut