The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational
preparatory school in
Lakeville, Connecticut
Lakeville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, close to Dutchess County, New York. It is within the town of Salisbury, but has its own ZIP Code (06039). As of the 2010 census, the population of Lak ...
, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the
Eight Schools Association The Eight Schools Association (ESA) is a group of private college-preparatory schools in the Northeast United States. Formation
It began informally during the 1973–74 school year and was formalized in 2006 with the appointment of a president and ...
and Ten Schools Admissions Organization.
It is also a former member of the
G30 Schools
G30 Schools, formerly known as G20 Schools, is an informal association of secondary schools initiated by David Wylde of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, South Africa and Anthony Seldon of Wellington College, Berkshire, United Kingdom in 2006.
...
group.
History
![PostcardLakevilleCTHotchkissSchool1901to1907UndividedBack](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/PostcardLakevilleCTHotchkissSchool1901to1907UndividedBack.jpg)
In 1891,
Maria Harrison Bissell Hotchkiss, with guidance from Yale President
Timothy Dwight V
Timothy Dwight V (November 16, 1828 – May 26, 1916) was an American academic, educator, Congregational minister, and President of Yale University (1886–1898). During his years as the school's president, Yale's schools first organized as a uni ...
, founded the school to prepare young men for
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. In 1892, The Hotchkiss School opened its doors to 50 male boarding students for $600. Hotchkiss's endowment also precipitated scholarship aid to deserving students. In 1974, the school became coeducational.
[
*a "With the guidance of then President of Yale University Timothy Dwight, Maria Hotchkiss established the School in 1891 to prepare young men for Yale...Hotchkiss offers a classical education, finding strength in a traditional approach that has worked well and stood the test of time." — ¶ 2 (Strengthened by Time)
*b "The week leading up to and including “Taft Day," the Saturday in the fall when Hotchkiss teams compete against the Taft School. From kickoff night to the Friday night pep rally and bonfire to Taft Day itself, blue and white rule." — ¶ 14 (Sprit Day, right sidebar)
*c "When the Hotchkiss School opened its doors in 1892, the first 50 boys were charged a boarding tuition of $600--more than many families could afford. But fortunately, Maria Hotchkiss had insisted on something unique in allocating the funds to establish the School: Hotchkiss would offer scholarship aid to deserving students." — ¶ 3 (A 123-Year Policy)
*d "Three years later, in September 1974, 88 young women entered Hotchkiss as preps, lower-mids, upper-mids, and seniors. Today, the number of boys and girls attending Hotchkiss is roughly equal." — ¶ 4 (Coeducation)
*e "As early as 1912 students from China have come to Hotchkiss...He also enabled Hotchkiss students to study abroad by having the School join the English-Speaking Union program and through the inception of the International Schoolboy Exchange in 1928. Today, the Hotchkiss student body includes students from 34 countries, and on average 5 to 10 students study abroad each year with the School Year Abroad program. Begun by the Class of 1948, The Fund for Global Understanding provides grant support for students participating in summer community service projects throughout the world. Hotchkiss is also a member of Round Square and Global Connections..." — ¶ 5 (Globally Connected)
*f "From the beginning, Maria Hotchkiss was not interested in establishing “a school for the pampered sons of rich gentlemen.”...In the 1960s Hotchkiss began its first formal participation in minority student recruitment programs such as the U.S. Grant Program – begun by Hotchkiss graduates attending Yale – as well as A Better Chance (ABC) and the Greater Opportunity (GO) Program. The Hotchkiss connection with Prep for Prep, an organization that helps prepare minority students for academically demanding independent schools, began in the early 1980s. Today, 43 percent of Hotchkiss students identify themselves as students of color." — ¶ 6 (Lessons of Differences)
*g "Of our 600 students, 21 percent come from countries other than the U.S."— ¶ 8 (Hotchkiss Today)]
Number-one rule
George Van Santvoord (g. 1908, Yale 1912),
a headmaster hailed as the Duke with an honorary dorm, claimed there was only one school rule: "Be a gentleman."
[
*a "Be a gentleman! That was the only rule, the Duke always liked to say, that the school truly had."— Pg. 33, ¶ 2][
*a "His school, the Duke used to say (Hotchkiss) had only one rule, and that was "Be a gentleman," How he defined what a gentleman was he did not say, but what a gentleman was usually became clear when you discovered what a gentleman wasn't. A gentleman didn't cheat. he didn't lie. A gentleman wasn't petty. A gentleman wasn't intolerant of others' shortcomings. A gentleman wasn't a whiner, wasn't a gossip, wasn't a boor, wasn't inconsiderate of others' feelings..."][
*a "George Van Santvoord (1891-1975), whose distinguished bearing earned him the nickname the Duke. Van Santvoord, and his predecessor who was known as the King, claimed that at Hotchkiss there was only one rule for students to follow: Be a gentleman."— ¶ 2][
*a "And the number-one rule in the ''Blue Book''—Be a gentleman."— Pg. 24, last ¶] In 1954, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' recognized in "Education: The Duke Steps Down", that "of all U.S. prep schools, few, if any, can beat the standards Hotchkiss has set."
[
*a "Of all U.S. prep schools, few, if any, can beat the standards Hotchkiss has set. — ¶ 2]
International relations and diversity
Maria Hotchkiss was uninterested in establishing "a school for the pampered sons of rich gentlemen". The school has enrolled international students since 1896. In 1928, the school joined the
English-Speaking Union and established the International Schoolboy Exchange. Established by the class of 1948, the Fund for Global Understanding enables student participation in summer service projects across the world.
[ In 1953, Hotchkiss alumnus Eugene Van Voorhis (g. 1951, Yale '55, Yale Law ‘58) incorporated the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation program to assist minority New Haven students with boarding school admission,] with Hotchkiss formally participating in addition to other recruitment initiatives from the 1960s onward,[ such as ]A Better Chance
A Better Chance (ABC) is a non-profit organization with the goal of helping more talented young people of color to become well-educated by attending high-achieving boarding, day, and public schools in the United States. ABC was founded in ...
(ABC), Greater Opportunity (GO) summer program for inner-city students, and Prep for Prep to foster minority leaders.[
The school has a 43% diverse student body][ (21% international students),][ offers a School Year Abroad program,][ and is a member of the Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG),][ ]Round Square
Round Square is an international network of schools, based on the educational concepts of Kurt Hahn, and named after a distinctive building at Gordonstoun. Founded by a group of seven schools in the late 1960s, by 1996 it had grown to 20 member ...
,[ and ]Confucius Institute
Confucius Institutes (CI; ) are public educational and cultural promotion programs funded and arranged currently by the , a government-organized non-governmental organization (GONGO) under the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic o ...
International Division (Hanban). In 2010, Hotchkiss partnered with Peking University High School
The Affiliated High School of Peking University (), abbreviated as ''Běi Dà Fù Zhōng'' (北大附中) or BDFZ, is a major public high school in Beijing that offers 7th-12th grade education. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious high ...
to establish its study abroad, international division called Dalton Academy.
Women admitted in 1974
in September 1974, 88 young women entered Hotchkiss as preps, lower-mids, upper-mids, and seniors. Since that beginning of coeducation the student body has grown to approximately a 50-50 gender balance in the student body.
Faculty sexual misconduct
In 2015, a male student sued the school, alleging that he had been raped and sexually harassed in "an environment of well-known and tolerated sexual assaults, sexually violent hazing, and pedophilia". In the suit, he said the Dormitory Master and instructor had drugged him and lured him to his quarters where he was raped.
In the lawsuit, he said he wrote an article for the student newspaper about the failure of the school to appropriately respond to complaints. The suit said the headmaster blocked publication and "conspired to prevent (the plaintiff) from informing the students, parents and the school community about the faculty members's sexual assault and his aberrant and predatory propensities and behavior."
As a result of this complaint and others, the school hired a law firm to investigate. The law firm interviewed more than 150 people and reviewed more than 200,000 pages of documents.
On August 16, 2018, the firm released its report, which found that seven former faculty members had abused students for years, yet school administrators took no action, even when made aware of the sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, se ...
. The report said that the abuse, stretching from 1969 through 1992, involved at least 16 students and consisted of intercourse and unnecessary "medical gynecological" exams.
A former headmaster who had been serving on the board of trustees resigned after cooperating with investigators. Board of trustee representatives said the information would be turned over to law enforcement officials.
Academics
Operating on a semester schedule, Hotchkiss offers a classical education Classical education may refer to:
*''Modern'', educational practices and educational movements:
**An education in the Classics, especially in Ancient Greek and Latin
**Classical education movement, based on the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) an ...
, 224 courses, 7 foreign languages (Chinese, French, German, Greek, Latin, Russian, and Spanish), and study-abroad programs. In 1991, the ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' recognized Hotchkiss' summer program as "Summer School for the Very Ambitious" and in 2011 as a private school leader in the farm-to-table
Farm-to-table (or farm-to-fork, and in some cases farm-to-school) is a social movement which promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, preferably through direct acquisition from the producer (which might be a winery, brewer ...
movement, by incorporating agriculture into the curriculum since 2008. The year prior, the '' Deerfield Scroll'' featured that "many consider The Hotchkiss School to be the leader in environmental awareness among the top prep schools in the country."
In 2007, ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' listed Hotchkiss as among the schools with a higher success rate (than Choate and Deerfield) in matriculation at Harvard, Princeton, and six others (excluding Yale).
Extracurriculars
Athletics
Hotchkiss fields 19 interscholastic sports teams that compete 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 ...
, Eight Schools Athletic Council, New England Preparatory School Athletic Council
The New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) is an organization that serves as the governing body for sports in preparatory schools and leagues in New England. The organization has 169 full member schools as well as 24 associate ...
(NEPSAC), and Interscholastic Sailing Association
The Interscholastic Sailing Association also known as ISSA is the organization that serves as the governing authority for all sailing competition between both public and private secondary schools throughout the United States. The organization's he ...
's New England Schools Sailing Association (NESSA) district. Its colors are Yale Blue
Yale Blue is the dark azure color used in association with Yale University.
History
Since the 1850s, Yale Crew has rowed in blue uniforms, and in 1894, "dark blue" was officially adopted as Yale's color, after half a century of the univer ...
and white, with the mascot being the bearcat.
In 1933, Samuel Gottscho
Samuel Herman Gottscho (February 8, 1875 – January 28, 1971) was an American architectural, landscape, and nature photographer.
Gottscho was born in Brooklyn in New York City. He acquired his first camera in 1896 and took his first photo ...
photographed the Hotchkiss baseball team, which appears in the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
' Gottscho-Schleisner Collection.
Hotchkiss–Taft rivalry
Despite Kent School
Kent School is a private, co-educational, college preparatory boarding school in Kent, Connecticut, United States. Frederick Herbert Sill established the school in 1906. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church of the United States.
Acade ...
's location in the same county, Hotchkiss and 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 ...
have a long-standing rivalry, where on the final Saturday of the fall sport season, called Taft Day at Hotchkiss and Hotchkiss Day at Taft, the two schools compete against each other in every sport. Similar boarding school traditions include the Andover–Exeter rivalry and Choate–Deerfield rivalry.
Clubs
Hotchkiss offers more than 65 clubs, including ''The Record'', a biweekly, student-run newspaper circulated on campus and among alumni, ''The Mischianza'' yearbook, the Hotchkiss Chorus music ensemble, and extensive service organizations such as the St. Luke's Society. Other notable organizations include Callioupe, the all-girls a cappella group; Bluenotes, the all-boys a cappella group; the Hotchkiss Speech and Debate Team; and Food for Thought, the school's philosophy club. The school also hosts an annual student-run film festival, The Hotchkiss Film Festival, that attracts student filmmakers from all over the world to compete for prizes and a scholarship.
Campus
The school overlooks the Berkshires
The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...
on a rural, campus featuring 12 single-sex dorms (Baechle-Ayres, Buehler, Coy, Dana, Edelman, Flinn, Garland, Memorial, Tinker, Van Santvoord, Wieler, and Redlich, opened in 2016) and 1 all-gender dorm (Watson), two lakes, and one forest. The Main Building serves as the academic and social center, featuring 30 SmartBoard
Smart Technologies (stylized as SMART Technologies) also known as Smart, is a Canadian company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and wholly owned by Foxconn. Founded in 1987, Smart is best known as the developer of interactive whiteboa ...
classrooms, the Edsel Ford Memorial Library with 87,000-volumes occupying 25,000 square feet, and dining halls.
An EPA Green Power Partner and Green Schools Ally, Hotchkiss requires all campus buildings to acquire LEED certification and was renovated to achieve the second highest, LEED Gold
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a
green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...
certification in 2008 and use 34% green power (ranked eighth largest, green K–12 school in 2009 by EPA), while upholding the Georgian architecture tradition from Bruce Price
Bruce Price (December 12, 1845 – May 29, 1903) was an American architect and an innovator in the Shingle Style. The stark geometry and compact massing of his cottages in Tuxedo Park, New York, influenced Modernist architects, including ...
, Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and ...
, and Delano and Aldrich. The school renovation project earned Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP (RAMSA), is an architecture firm based in New York City. First established by Robert A. M. Stern (as Stern Hagmann Architects) in 1969, it is now organized as a limited liability partnership with 16 general partne ...
the 2010 Palladio Award The Palladio Award is an architectural prize given annually for "creative interpretation or adaptation of design principles developed through 2,500 years of the Western architectural tradition". The Awards, in several categories, are presented by t ...
, with Paul Rudolph and Butler Rogers Basket contributing elements of modern architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...
.
Art facilities
In 2005, Hotchkiss opened the 715-seat Esther Eastman Music Center, equipped with a handmade Fazioli
Fazioli Pianoforti (), translated as Fazioli Pianos, produces grand and concert pianos from their factory in Sacile, Italy. The company was founded by engineer and pianist Paolo Fazioli in 1981. The craftsmen at Fazioli build 140 pianos a year ...
F308 piano, 12 Steinway pianos, 12 practice rooms, 3 ensemble practice rooms, a WKIS radio station, and Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) lab. Hotchkiss also has a 615-seat proscenium theater called Walker Auditorium.[
]
Athletic facilities
In 2002, Hotchkiss opened the Forrest E. Mars Jr. Athletic Center, a 212,000 square-foot athletic center with multi-purpose playing surfaces, elevated indoor exercise track, the Andrew K. Dwyer and Martin Dwyer III Olympic Rink and Thomas Schmidt NHL Rink, natatorium with 10-lane pool and separate diving well, William C. Fowle Gymnasium (hardwood basketball court), Edward R. Davis Wrestling Room, Joseph Cullman Squash Courts featuring eight international squash courts, Ford Indoor Tennis Courts, John R. Chandler Jr. Fitness Center, locker rooms, and shower facilities.
The Hotchkiss Golf Course is a nine-hole golf course of approximately 3,000 yards, designed by Seth Raynor
Seth Jagger Raynor (May 7, 1874 – January 23, 1926) was an American golf course architect and engineer. He designed approximately 85 golf courses in about 13 years, his first in 1914, at age 40. His mentor was Charles Blair Macdonald, the creat ...
in 1924 and rated by '' Golf Digest'' as one of the 25 best nine-hole courses in America. Hotchkiss also has the Baker Complex, including synthetic Sprole Field and all-weather Hemmingway track; fifteen outdoor tennis courts; Joseph Cullman Paddle Tennis Courts; Centennial, Hoyt, Taylor, Downing, and Class of '49 Fields; Malkin Climbing Walls; Lake Wononscopomuc and a boathouse for sailing; three ponds; and extensive hiking trails.
Notable alumni
Notable faculty
* Robert Osborn, art and philosophy, noted illustrator and cartoonist. Garry Trudeau the creator of the ''Doonesbury'' strip, has called Osborn "one of the very few masters of illustrative cartooning."
In popular culture
*F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
's book ''This Side of Paradise
''This Side of Paradise'' is the debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive ...
'' (1920) and short story "Six of One" (1932) mention the school several times.
*In 1947, ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' made a piece of Hotchkiss graffiti famous by publishing it twice: "In Lakeville, Conn., someone penciled in the Hotchkiss School lavatory: "Schuyler van Kilroy 3rd was here," a humorous, noble
A noble is a member of the nobility.
Noble may also refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Noble Glacier, King George Island
* Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land
* Noble Peak, Wiencke Island
* Noble Rocks, Graham Land
Australia
* Noble Island, Gr ...
and generational-titled variation of the popular expression " Kilroy was here."
* Archibald MacLeish's last interview (1982) in '' American Heritage'' magazine disclosed, "God, how I did not like Hotchkiss!"[ Vol. 33, Issue 5, Paragraph 12.]
*Rosemary Wells
Rosemary Wells (born January 29, 1943) is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. She is well known for using animal characters to address real human issues. Some of her most well-known characters are Max & Ruby (later adapted into ...
' book '' Through the Hidden Door'' (1987) features the main character, Barney Penniman, who plans to attend Hotchkiss.
*Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author, screenwriter, short-story writer, and director. Ellis was first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a ...
' book '' American Psycho'' (1991) features Patrick Bateman's fiancée, Evelyn, as a Hotchkiss graduate.[ Pg. 123, ¶ 2.]
*Joe Klein
Joe Klein (born September 7, 1946) is an American political commentator and author. He is best known for his work as a columnist for ''Time'' magazine and his novel ''Primary Colors'', an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton' ...
's book ''Primary Colors
A set of primary colors or primary colours (see spelling differences) consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a br ...
'' (1996) features the principal character, Henry Burton, as a Hotchkiss graduate frequently called "Hotchkiss".
*Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not ...
's book '' Sons of Fortune'' (2002) features the protagonist, Fletcher Davenport, as a Hotchkiss graduate.
*Jay McInerney
John Barrett "Jay" McInerney Jr. (; born January 13, 1955) is an American novelist, screenwriter, editor, and columnist. His novels include ''Bright Lights, Big City (novel), Bright Lights, Big City'', ''Ransom'', ''Story of My Life (novel), Sto ...
's short story "The Madonna of the Turkey Season" (2007) features a principal character, Aidan, as a Hotchkiss alumnus.[ Pg. 49]
*The ''Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...
'' TV series (2007) character Glen Bishop attends Hotchkiss. In season 5, episode 12, "Commissions and Fees
"Commissions and Fees" is the twelfth and penultimate episode of the fifth season of the American television drama series ''Mad Men'' and the 64th episode of the series overall. It is co-written by Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton, and ...
," he sneaks off campus to visit Sally Draper in New York.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1891 establishments in Connecticut
Educational institutions established in 1891
Co-educational boarding schools
Boarding schools in Connecticut
Preparatory schools in Connecticut
Private high schools in Connecticut
Non-profit organizations based in Connecticut
Salisbury, Connecticut
Berkshires
Schools in Litchfield County, Connecticut
Cass Gilbert buildings
Georgian architecture in Connecticut
Modernist architecture in Connecticut
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certified buildings
Farms in Connecticut
Round Square schools
Selective schools
Semester schools
Bruce Price buildings