St. Paul's School (Concord, NH)
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St. Paul's School (also known as St. Paul's or SPS) is a college- preparatory,
coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
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. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
in
Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat, seat of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Merrimack County. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 43,976, making it the List of municipalities ...
, affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The school's , or 3.125 square mile, campus serves 540 students, who come from 37 states and 28 countries. Established in 1856 to educate boys from upper-class families, St. Paul's later became one of the first boys' boarding schools to admit girls and is now home to a diverse student body from all backgrounds. It is one of the only remaining boarding-only high schools in the United States. With a
financial endowment A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of Financial instrument, financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to Donor intent, the will of its fo ...
of $759.3 million as of June 2024, St. Paul's is one of the wealthiest boarding schools in New England on a per capita basis. U.S.-based students with annual household incomes of $150,000 or below "generally qualify for full tuition support." Thirty-eight percent of students are on financial aid.


History


Early history

In 1856, Boston physician George Cheyne Shattuck, the future dean of
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
, converted his summer home in Millville, New Hampshire (a satellite town of Concord) into a boarding school for boys. Inspired by the educational theories of
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (; ; ; 12 January 1746 – 17 February 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking ...
, who believed that classroom learning should be balanced with the "direct experience of the senses," Shattuck wanted his two sons educated in the austere, bucolic countryside. He hoped that eventually, the school would "educate the sons of
ther Ther may refer to: * ''Thér.'', taxonomic author abbreviation of Irénée Thériot (1859–1947), French bryologist * Agroha Mound, archaeological site in Agroha, Hisar district, India * Therapy A therapy or medical treatment is the attempte ...
wealthy inhabitants of large cities." For the first fifty years of St. Paul's history, it was run by two brothers, Henry Augustus Coit (r. 1856-95) and Joseph Howland Coit (r. 1895-1906). An
Anglophile An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. In some cases, Anglophilia refers to an individual's appreciation of English history and traditional English cultural ico ...
, Henry Coit endeavored to make St. Paul's an American equivalent of an English public school, importing Anglicisms such as " forms," " removes," "
evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. It is loosely based on the canonical hours of vespers and compline. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which ...
," and "
matins Matins (also Mattins) is a canonical hour in Christian liturgy, originally sung during the darkness of early morning (between midnight and dawn). The earliest use of the term was in reference to the canonical hour, also called the vigil, which w ...
." The school's religious services were
Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...
, and enrollment was initially limited to Episcopalians. In the 1890s, Coit also attempted to ban baseball in favor of cricket; the SPS cricket team toured New England and Canada. SPS almost immediately attracted an upper-class clientele. Shattuck had attended
Round Hill School The Round Hill School for Boys was a short-lived experimental school in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was founded by George Bancroft and Joseph Cogswell in 1823. Though it failed as a viable venture — it closed in 1834 — it was an early effor ...
, a short-lived experimental school that was "the most famous American school of its time." Founded in 1823, Round Hill was one of
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
's top feeder schools, and "offered an excellent but very expensive education" with "an elegant lifestyle," including "servants, stables, and tours of the estates of prominent Bostonians." Although it shut down in 1834, it left a strong impression on Shattuck, who believed that in the isolation of a boarding school, attentive teachers could better foster "physical and moral culture" in their students. Roughly 70 percent of Round Hill families eventually sent children to St. Paul's. The school started with just three students,Khan, Shamus Rahman (2010-12-28). ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School'' (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) (p. 11). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. "Coit died in 1895, firmly at the helm until his final days. By the end of his forty-year tenure, St. Paul's had a faculty of 35 and a student body of 345." but grew quickly. By the mid-1860s, it was already filled to capacity, leading an SPS parent to establish St. Mark's School. Enrollment reached 204 students by 1878 and 345 students by 1895. Although the school (founded by Bostonians) was initially not associated with the New York upper class, SPS gradually extended its reach to New York and the
Philadelphia Main Line The Philadelphia Main Line, known simply as the Main Line, is an informally delineated historical and Social class in the United States, social region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lying along the former Pennsylvania Railroad's onc ...
. By 1894, there were only six students from Boston. In 1923, the school educated 199 students from New York and 26 from Massachusetts.


College feeder

The Coits' immediate successor, Henry Ferguson (r. 1906-11), left after just five years. In 1910, Samuel Drury (r. 1911-38) assumed control of the school. He presided over what the school historian called its " Augustan age." Drury stayed at St. Paul's for twenty-seven years. Along the way, he declined the rectorship of Manhattan's Trinity Church—at the time the nation's wealthiest congregation—and the bishopric of Pennsylvania. Drury turned SPS into one of America's most reliable feeder schools to Ivy League universities. Like other leading New England prep schools of the period, SPS was not founded as a
college-preparatory school A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to state school, public, Independent school, private independent or p ...
: of the first 70 graduates, only five went directly to college. However, times were changing. Ferguson had recognized that parents were increasingly interested in sending their sons to college, but was not able to implement his ideas. Although Drury shared some of Henry Coit's skepticism about higher education—he once wrote in his annual report that a quarter of every St. Paul's class should be encouraged to forego college —he significantly improved St. Paul's academic reputation. He hired better teachers, tightened academic standards, and reestablished student discipline. Universities were attracted to the kind of well-schooled, upper-class young men that schools like St. Paul's produced in large quantities. In 1934, 95% of St. Paul's graduates matriculated at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. In addition, in 1940 (shortly after Drury's death), 77 students applied to Harvard from the " St. Grottlesex" schools (of which St. Paul's was the largest member), and only one was rejected. Drury also sought to democratize the student body and curtail snobbery among the richer students. Although St. Paul's was heavily oversubscribed—in 1920 it received over 1,600 applications for just over 100 openings—Drury set aside 10 slots a year for the winners of a competitive examination, dryly explaining that "we try to admit every son of an alumnus," but also "wish to admit every boy with high marks." A capable fundraiser, Drury raised the school's financial endowment from $1.1 million in 1920 to $3.6 million in 1930, and conducted a $1.6 million fundraising campaign that primarily went towards student financial aid. From 1920 to 1938, the share of SPS students on scholarship nearly tripled, from roughly 6% to 17%. Starting in 1922, Drury and his successors froze tuition at $1,400 for 22 consecutive years.


Turbulence and reform

Norman Nash (r. 1939-47) guided the school through World War II before leaving to become the Bishop of Massachusetts. He was succeeded by Henry Kittredge (r. 1947-54), the first SPS rector who was not an Episcopal minister. Although Kittredge questioned colleges' increasing reliance on standardized tests in college admissions, he was generally able to sustain SPS' enviable college placement record. In 1953, SPS sent 78% of its students to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, second among New England boarding schools. Under Matthew Warren (r. 1954-70), the school underwent significant changes. Tuition was increased to $1,800; applications increased significantly despite rising tuition, aided by an improving economy; and the campus was substantially renovated. As competition for spots at SPS increased, Warren conciliated the alumni, many of whom wanted to send their own sons to SPS. He announced that under his watch, SPS would not "use scholarship funds to entice the unusually able boy to our school." It was an ill-timed concession, as colleges were receiving the same flood of applications as boarding schools and took the opportunity to tighten their own standards for admission. By 1967 the proportion of SPS graduates going on to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton had nearly halved from 1953. Warren personally visited Yale president
Kingman Brewster Kingman Brewster Jr. (June 17, 1919 – November 8, 1988) was an American educator, academic and diplomat. He served as the 17th president of Yale University and as United States ambassador to the United Kingdom. Early life Brewster was born i ...
to ask him to reverse course. Brewster replied that Yale would accept students from the top 40% of the SPS class, but was no longer interested in bottom-half SPS students. The school gradually opened its doors to a broader cross-section of America. The school scrapped its Episcopalians-only rule, although not without some hiccups. In 1939,
Rose Kennedy Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy (July 22, 1890 – January 22, 1995) was an American philanthropist, socialite, and matriarch of the Kennedy family. She was deeply embedded in the " lace curtain" Irish-American community in Boston. Her fathe ...
withdrew
Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yo ...
from the school after just one month because she believed its culture was still anti-Catholic; in the late 1950s the school allowed
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...
'62 to attend Mass off campus as long as he also attended the school's Episcopal Sunday chapel services later that day; and by the end of the 1960s, Catholics were no longer required to attend Protestant services on campus. SPS' first black faculty member ( John T. Walker) and student arrived in 1957 and 1959, respectively. Warren's last major achievement was coeducation: in May 1970, shortly before he stepped down, the board of trustees agreed to begin admitting girls in 1971. Nonetheless, the tail end of Warren's tenure marked the start of a turbulent period for St. Paul's. In 1968, students wrote an acerbic manifesto describing the school administration as an oppressive regime, and issued demands for change. St. Paul's rode out the storm under Warren's successor William Oates (r. 1970-82). According to Alex Shoumatoff '64, Oates applied "the prevailing educational and developmental thinking of the day, that schools should not be repressive and that adolescents should be free to experiment and try out different identities." He conciliated the students by offering them the opportunity to participate in disciplinary decisions. He also accepted several of the demands that the students had made in 1968. In the following years, seated meals were reduced from three times a day to four times a week, courses were shortened to be terms (rather than years) long, mandatory (non-Sunday) chapel attendance was reduced to four times a week, and the school's grading system was changed to ease student competition. Oates also expanded the arts program. An excellent fundraiser, Oates doubled the size of the school's endowment with an ambitious $30 million fundraising campaign, which left SPS the wealthiest boarding school in the United States (per capita) by a comfortable margin.


Emergence into modern era

By the 1980s and 1990s, the board of trustees wanted the administration to exercise a firmer hand over the school. They confronted St. Paul's emerging image (warranted or not) as a "party school"—a poll found that 80% of the students were using drugs—and sought to restore faculty discipline over the students. In 1992, the board appointed David Hicks (r. 1992-96) as rector and ordered him to improve the school's academic reputation, as " body had gone to Harvard in five years, except for legacies." Hicks introduced an interdisciplinary humanities curriculum which the school still employs today. Although the faculty eventually forced him to resign, the school rebounded academically. In 2001, SPS ranked fifth among boarding schools and fifteenth in the nation in a study of which schools sent the most students to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The succeeding rectors ushered in a relative period of calm, and the trustees and rectors have continued to modernize the campus. The new Ohrstrom Library, designed by
Robert A. M. Stern Robert Arthur Morton Stern (born May 23, 1939) is an American architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, also known as RAMSA. From 1998 to 2016, he was the Dean of the Y ...
and Carroll Cline, opened in 1991. A 95,000-square-foot athletic center opened in 2004. The Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science opened in fall 2011. The former visual arts center, the Hargate Building, was renovated in 2017 to become the new Friedman Community Center. A replacement arts building was opened in 2017. However, the school has endured a series of controversies in the 21st century, primarily concerning sexual misconduct. The modern-day St. Paul's serves a diverse body of students from all backgrounds while still educating students drawn from the highest levels of American society and international elites. According to sociologist
Shamus Khan Shamus Rahman Khan (born October 8, 1978) is an American sociologist. He has been a professor of Sociology and American studies at Princeton University since 2021. Formerly he served as chair of the sociology department at Columbia University. He ...
(an alumnus), the school's unparalleled financial resources allow it to cultivate "an intentional diversity that few communities share or can afford."Khan, p. 13 ("Sitting next to a poor Hispanic boy from the Bronx— who forty years ago would never have been admitted— is a frighteningly self-possessed girl from one of the richest WASP families in the world. St. Paul's is still a place for the already elite. ... But it is more."). Financial aid students admitted to SPS receive, on average, an 87% discount on frontline tuition. In 2019, Kathleen Giles became the fourteenth rector of St. Paul's. She had previously served as the head of
Middlesex School Middlesex School (informally known as MX) is a Mixed-sex education, coeducational, Private school, independent, and Nonsectarian, non-sectarian boarding school, boarding secondary school located in Concord, Massachusetts, Concord, Middlesex Count ...
from 2003 to 2019. Before that, she was the dean of academic affairs at
Groton School Groton School is a Private school, private, college-preparatory school, college-preparatory, day school, day and boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, United States. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcop ...
. Under her administration, St. Paul's bills itself as "one of the nation's only 100% boarding high schools"; nearly all of its competitors enroll some day students. File:New Upper School Building, Saint Paul's School (3678170469).jpg, The Upper School File:St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) in 1890 01.jpg, Students on the ice of Lower School Pond, 1890 File:St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) in 1890 08.jpg, Students playing leap frog outside the Big Study, 1890 File:St. Paul's School, Concord, The Lower School, by Kimball, W. G. C. (Willis G. C.), 1843-1916.png, "The Lower School" File:St. Paul's School, Concord, The Chapel, by Kimball, W. G. C. (Willis G. C.), 1843-1916.jpg, "The ldChapel" File:St. Paul's School, Concord, Dining Room at the School, by Kimball, W. G. C. (Willis G. C.), 1843-1916.jpg, "Dining Room at the School"


Facilities

The school's rural campus is familiarly known as "Millville," after a now-abandoned mill whose relic still stands in the woods near the Lower School Pond. When St. Paul's was founded, its campus covered 50 acres.Khan, Shamus Rahman (2010-12-28). ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School'': (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. Today, the campus stretches over 2,000 acres, the overwhelming majority of which is undeveloped wildland and woodland. The campus itself includes four
pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...
s and the upper third of the Turkey River. In 2018, ''
Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast ...
'' named St. Paul's the most beautiful private high school campus in New Hampshire. The centerpiece of the campus is the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul (informally the "New Chapel"), constructed between 1886 and 1888. It was designed by
Henry Vaughan Henry Vaughan (17 April 1621 – 23 April 1695) was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. His religious poetry appeared in ''Silex Scintillans'' in 1650, with a second part in 1655.''Oxfo ...
, and was one of the first American chapels to employ
Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...
. Although Vaughan was the architect of
Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Wa ...
, an architecture critic at Princeton University called the New Chapel Vaughan's masterpiece, as Vaughan died before the cathedral was completed. SPS preserved the smaller Old Chapel, which dates back to 1858 and was the school's first building; it is now used for ceremonial events."The old chapel is one of the most beautiful spaces on campus: in the middle of the grounds, intimate, and too small to house the whole student body." Khan, Shamus Rahman (2010-12-28). ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School:'' (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) (pp. 74-75). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. Overlooking the Lower School Pond, the Ohrstrom Library was remodeled in 2016 and is now home to 75,000 print books and almost half a million
e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...
s in its digital archive. According to the alumni magazine, this "put the school archives on par with some of the country’s major universities." Lindsay Center, the science and math building, contains a greenhouse and an observatory. The school is currently building a 16,000-square-foot admissions center, scheduled to open in early 2025. There are 19 dorms: nine boys', nine girls', and one all-gender. Each houses between 20 and 40 students, and every dorm has members of all four forms. The architecture of the dormitories varies from the
Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...
style of the "Quad" dorms (built in 1927) to the spare,
modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...
style of the Kittredge building (built in the early 1970s).


Finances


Tuition and financial aid

In the 2024-25 school year, St. Paul's charged students $68,353 plus fees, of which financial aid covered, on average, $60,500. St. Paul's offers need-based
financial aid Student financial aid in the United States is funding that is available exclusively to students attending a post-secondary educational institution in the United States. This funding is used to assist in covering the many costs incurred in purs ...
, and commits to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for every admitted student. The school states that U.S.-based families with annual household incomes of $150,000 or below "generally qualify for full tuition support." Thirty-eight percent of SPS students are on financial aid, and the school's financial aid budget is roughly $12.6 million. Although most financial aid at St. Paul's is administered strictly on the basis of financial need, the school offers a limited number of regional scholarships for students from Alabama, California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming, as well as Mexico.


Endowment and expenses

As of June 30, 2024, St. Paul's disclosed in its 2023-24 Annual Report that its
financial endowment A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of Financial instrument, financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to Donor intent, the will of its fo ...
stands at $759.3 million, equivalent to approximately $1.4 million per student. In its
Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...
filings for the 2021-22 school year, SPS reported total assets of $953.8 million, net assets of $854.6 million, investment holdings of $724.4 million, and cash holdings of $14.9 million. SPS also reported $64.7 million in program service expenses and $10.9 million in grants (primarily
student financial aid Student financial aid (or student financial support, or student aid) is financial support given to individuals who are furthering their education. Student financial aid can come in a number of forms, including scholarships, Grant (money), grants, ...
). St. Paul's has historically been one of the wealthiest boarding schools in the United States. In 1978, ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine reported that St. Paul's had an endowment per student of $92,555 ($440,524 in February 2024 dollars), nearly two-thirds more than second-placed Groton. A 2009 study found that
Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
($987,000) had passed St. Paul's ($827,000), and
Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...
($722,000) and Hotchkiss ($716,000) were not far behind. However, in January 2019 St. Paul's was once again the wealthiest boarding school in New England, with an endowment per student of $1.19 million.


Admissions and student body


Admissions

In 2024, St. Paul's welcomed 141 new students and reported an admissions rate of 13%. The new students came from 24 states and 22 countries. Based on 2023 data, 71.7% of accepted students chose to enroll at SPS.


Diversity

In the 2023-24 school year, St. Paul's reported that 48% of its students identified as people of color and 22% were international students. The student body represented 37 states and 28 countries. In the 2021-22 school year, St. Paul's reported that 62.4% of its students were white, 15.1% were Asian, 7.9% were black, 7.7% were Hispanic, 0.2% were Native American/Alaska Native, and 6.6% were multiracial. The survey did not permit the school to identify one student in multiple categories. At the end of the 2021-22 school year, SPS announced that 47% of its 158 incoming students were non-Caucasian and 19% came from abroad.


Athletics


Notable sports

George Shattuck supported outdoors education, and St. Paul's was "perhaps the first school in which the deed of gift accented physical development." St. Paul's has a long tradition of
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
. The school, and the city of Concord more broadly, were early cradles for ice hockey in America. * By some accounts, the first hockey game in the United States was played on the St. Paul's Lower School Pond on November 17, 1883, after SPS teacher James Potter Conover visited
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
for Christmas and watched Canadian skaters play the game. * In 1885, America's first written hockey rules were drafted at St. Paul's by schoolboy Malcolm Gordon '87. Gordon would go on to coach hockey at SPS from 1888 to 1917. He is a member of the
U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame The United States Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1973 with the goal of preserving the history of ice hockey in the United States while recognizing the extraordinary contributions of select players, coaches, administrators, officials and ...
. * Under Gordon and his successors, the school was a prominent force in early 20th-century American hockey, playing and beating collegiate teams, including
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
and
Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
. SPS alumni may have founded the hockey programs at Harvard and Yale. * American college hockey's award for the most outstanding male player is named after SPS alumnus
Hobey Baker Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker (January 15, 1892 – December 21, 1918) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. Considered the first American star in ice hockey by the Hockey Hall of Fame, he was also an accomplished Am ...
. The first
squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...
courts in the United States were built at St. Paul's in 1884. In addition to bringing hockey to the United States, Conover introduced an early variant of squash (
squash tennis Squash tennis is an American variant of squash, one played with a ball and racquets that are more similar to the equipment used for lawn tennis, and with somewhat different rules. The game offers the complexity of squash and the speed of racqu ...
) to SPS. The St. Paul's boys' and girls' crews have each won multiple titles in international competition. The boys' crew won the
Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup is a rowing event at Henley Royal Regatta open to school 1st VIIIs. History The event was instituted in 1946 for public schools in the United Kingdom. It was opened to entries from overseas in 1964, an ...
at the
Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a Rowing (sport), rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It diffe ...
in 1980, 1994, and 2004. The girls' crew team won the Peabody Cup at the
Henley Women's Regatta Henley Women's Regatta, often abbreviated to "HWR" or "Women's Henley", is a rowing regatta held at Henley-on-Thames, England. Chris Aistrop and Rosemary Mayglothling were jointly responsible for setting up the Regatta in June 1988 and Aistrop ...
in 1996, 1998, 2001, and 2019.


Conference affiliation

St. Paul's is a member of the Lakes Region League, an athletic conference of prep schools in New Hampshire and Vermont. It was previously a member of the Boston-centered
Independent School League Independent School League or ISL may refer to: * Independent School League (Illinois), a group of nine Chicago-area preparatory schools * Independent School League (New England), a group of 16 New England preparatory schools * Independent School ...
, but withdrew in 2017 due to league bylaws surrounding merit scholarships. In addition, the athletic directors of St. Paul's and the other members of the Eight Schools Association comprise the Eight Schools Athletic Council, which organizes sports events and tournaments among ESA schools.


Daily life

St. Paul's conducts its Humanities classes using the Harkness method, which encourages discussion between students and the teacher, and between students.


Socialization

According to
Shamus Khan Shamus Rahman Khan (born October 8, 1978) is an American sociologist. He has been a professor of Sociology and American studies at Princeton University since 2021. Formerly he served as chair of the sociology department at Columbia University. He ...
, author of ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School'' (2010) and a sociologist who is a St. Paul's alumnus, students are
socialized In sociology, socialization (also socialisation – see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and ...
to function as privileged holders of power and status in an open society. Privilege in
meritocracy Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods or political power are vested in individual people based on ability and talent, rather than ...
is acquired through talent, hard work, and a wide variety of cultural and social experiences. Economic inequality and
social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources within a society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in acce ...
are explained by the lack of talent, hard work, and limited cultural and social experience of the less privileged. Thus high status is earned, not based on entitlement.Page 16, ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School'',
Shamus Khan Shamus Rahman Khan (born October 8, 1978) is an American sociologist. He has been a professor of Sociology and American studies at Princeton University since 2021. Formerly he served as chair of the sociology department at Columbia University. He ...
. "From this perspective, inequality is explained not by the practices of the elite but instead by the character of the disadvantaged."
According to Khan, "Today what is distinct among the elite is not their exclusivity but their ease within and broad acceptance of a more open world.""Today what is distinct among the elite is not their exclusivity but their ease within and broad acceptance of a more open world." Khan, Shamus Rahman (2010-12-28). ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School'': (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) (p. 19). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
Hierarchy A hierarchy (from Ancient Greek, Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy ...
is embedded in the rituals and traditions of the school from the first day. According to Khan, the student advances up the ladder of the hierarchy embedded in the culture of the school."Through their daily sitting in the Chapel and countless other formal and informal experiences at the school, students are taught that the world is a hierarchical place and that different people are placed in different spaces within this hierarchy." Khan, Shamus Rahman (2010-12-28). ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School:'' (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) (p. 28). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.


Traditions

The annual Inter-House Inter-Club Race, known among students as the "Dorm Run," but now officially named the "Charles B. Morgan Run", takes place late in the fall term, usually in early to mid-November. Students are invited to earn points for their dorm and club by running in a cross country race. The current student record is 9:48, set in 2006 by Peter Harrison '07. In the spring term, St. Paul's holds a school-wide public speaking contest called the Hugh Camp Cup. The finalists' speeches are delivered before the entire school, and the student body votes on a winner, whose name is engraved on the prize. Alumnus
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...
achieved this distinction during his sixth form year. St. Paul's students once had a close relationship with
jam band A jam band is a musical group whose concerts and live albums substantially feature improvisational "jam session, jamming". Typically, jam bands will play variations of pre-existing songs, extending them to musical improvisation, improvise ove ...
s like the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
. Some of the slang peculiar to St. Paul's originated as the "Pyramid Dialect" among St. Paul's students and alumni who followed the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
's 1978 shows in Egypt.
Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the ...
played in the Upper Dining Hall on May 19, 1990. electro house artist
Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki ( , ; born November 30, 1977) is an American DJ and record producer. In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours. In 2024, Gold House recognized him as ...
performed in the school's Athletic & Fitness Center on April 9, 2015.


Advanced Studies Program

St. Paul's School founded the summer Advanced Studies Program in 1957 to provide juniors from public and parochial New Hampshire high schools with challenging educational opportunities. The students live and study at the St. Paul's campus for five and a half weeks and are immersed in their subject of choice. Recent offerings have included astronomy and Shakespeare. In addition to the course load, students choose a daily extracurricular activity or sport to participate in four afternoons per week. The program had a 37% admission rate in 2010. In 2014, 267 students from 78 high schools participated in the Advanced Studies Program.


Controversies


1948-2009 sexual misconduct investigation

In 2016, after the ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' published an article implicating a former SPS teacher in sexual misconduct during his time at a different school, SPS issued a public invitation to its alumni to report incidents of sexual misconduct during their time on campus. It also retained the law firm of former
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
Attorney General
Scott Harshbarger Luther Scott Harshbarger (born December 1, 1941) is an American attorney and Democratic politician. He served as the 56th Massachusetts Attorney General from 1991 to 1999. In 1998, he was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Massachusetts but ...
to conduct an investigation. Harshbarger's team issued an initial report in May 2017. It also published follow-up reports in September 2017 and August 2018 outlining additional allegations of sexual misconduct that SPS received after the publication of the May 2017 report. The initial report was limited to the period between 1948 and 1988, and the follow-up reports addressed allegations of misconduct through 2009. All together, the three reports substantiated allegations of misconduct against twenty former SPS employees (including future politician
Gerry Studds Gerry Eastman Studds ( ; May 12, 1937 – October 14, 2006) was an American Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts who served from 1973 until 1997. He was the first member of Congress to be openly gay. In 1983 he was censured by the ...
), which included
assaults In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result i ...
,
harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and ...
, and
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
. The investigators concluded that allegations against fifteen other SPS employees were unsubstantiated, and lacked sufficient information to reach an conclusion with respect to thirteen other SPS employees. Per the terms of a settlement with the
New Hampshire Attorney General The attorney general of New Hampshire is a constitutional officer of the U.S. state of New Hampshire who serves as head of the New Hampshire Department of Justice. , the state's attorney general is John Formella. Qualifications and appointment ...
(see below), SPS has retained an independent monitor to review any further reports of sexual misconduct by SPS employees. In 2019, the school removed the names of two rectors from campus buildings, explaining that they had mishandled abuse claims during their respective tenures.


1991 rape allegation

In July 2020, alumna Lacy Crawford wrote that she had been raped by multiple SPS students when she was fifteen, and accused SPS of a cover-up. The school issued a statement that it would "honor her desire that the school acknowledge its failings, accept responsibility, and work, not just promise, to do better." Crawford later disclosed that the school had issued her a written apology and that she was pleased with its response.


Mid-2000s IRS audit and investigation

Rector Craig B. Anderson (r. 1997-2005) retired under pressure in May 2005 after a campaign by parents and alumni that criticized his management of school finances and investments. As alleged, Anderson had severely cut back on school expenses while simultaneously being quite liberal with his own compensation and perks."...as staff positions were cut to save money, Anderson enriched himself, raising his salary from around $180,000 to $530,000." Khan, Shamus Rahman (2010-12-28). ''Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School:'' (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) (p. 39). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. The state attorney general investigated the issue, resulting in a settlement agreement and an
Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...
audit."A Private-School Affair"
feature article by Alex Shoumatoff in ''
Vanity Fair (magazine) ''Vanity Fair'' is an American monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United States. The first version of ''Vanity Fair'' was published from 1913 to 1936. The imprint was revived in ...
'' January 2006, accessed August 21, 2015


2015 "Senior Salute" rape conviction

The "Senior Salute", an alleged tradition in which seniors would proposition younger classmates for sexual encounters before graduation, was publicly revealed in 2015, when a former student, Owen Labrie, was charged with the rape of 15-year-old freshman Chessy Prout. Labrie was convicted on three counts of statutory rape, one count of endangering the welfare of a child, and one felony count of using a computer to lure a minor. The New Hampshire court system rejected Labrie's appeals and new trial requests in 2018 and 2019. Labrie was released from prison in June 2019, having served eight months of his twelve-month sentence. He was also sentenced to five years of probation and was required to register as a sex offender. In 2018, SPS confidentially settled a civil suit filed by Prout's parents. Later that year, Prout published her memoir of the incident, titled ''I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope''.


2017 criminal investigation

In July 2017, the New Hampshire Attorney General, with assistance from
Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other words Arts and media * ''Concord'' (video game), a defunct 2024 first-person sh ...
police and the New Hampshire State Police, started a criminal investigation into the school to determine whether administrators engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of students. In 2018, the state AG reached a settlement agreement, which allowed the school to avoid criminal prosecution and required it to pay for an external compliance monitor. In 2020, the monitor resigned, claiming that the school was obstructing his investigations and that an administrator had verbally abused him. The school eventually agreed to hire a new monitor, to add funding for an assistant monitor, and to hire the
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) is an American nonprofit anti-sexual assault organization, the largest in the United States. RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, as well as the Department of Defense Safe Helpline ...
to conduct a study of the school's anti-abuse policies. The school was not required to re-hire the original monitor. A replacement monitor released a report in 2021, noting that the school had hired an on-campus advocate to provide support for sexual assault survivors on a confidential basis. RAINN issued a report and recommendations in September 2022, noting that "St. Paul's leadership has made a number of process improvements in recent years."


Notable alumni


Notable faculty

*
James Milnor Coit James Milnor Coit (January 31, 1845 – January 5, 1922) was an American teacher and scientist. He was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and educated at Hobart College. He was connected for some time with the Cleveland Tube Works. In 1876, he ...
, teacher * George A. Gordon, United States Ambassador to
Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
and the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
*
Richard Lederer Richard Lederer (born 1938) is an American linguist, author, speaker, and teacher. He is best known for his books on the English language and on wordplay such as puns, oxymorons, and anagrams. He has been dubbed "the Wizard of Idiom," "Attila ...
, English teacher, author and compiler of humorous errors in the use of the English language *
Gerry Studds Gerry Eastman Studds ( ; May 12, 1937 – October 14, 2006) was an American Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts who served from 1973 until 1997. He was the first member of Congress to be openly gay. In 1983 he was censured by the ...
, who later served as U.S. congressman from
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
* John T. Walker, first African-American Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C. *
John Gilbert Winant John Gilbert Winant (February 23, 1889 – November 3, 1947) was an American diplomat and politician with the Republican party after a brief career as a teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. John Winant held positions in New Hampshire, national, a ...
, governor of New Hampshire; ambassador to Great Britain during World War II


See also

*
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. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
*
College-preparatory school A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to state school, public, Independent school, private independent or p ...
*
Saint Grottlesex Saint Grottlesex refers to several American College-preparatory school, college-preparatory boarding schools in New England that historically educated the social and economic elite of the Northeastern United States. The schools are traditionally g ...
, a colloquial expression for several of the area's prep schools


References


Footnotes


Further reading

* Cookson, Peter W., Jr., and Caroline Hodges Persell. ''Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'' (Basic Books, 1985
online
* McLachlan, James. ''American Boarding Schools: A Historical Study'' (1970
online


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire Boarding schools in New Hampshire Private high schools in New Hampshire Co-educational boarding schools Episcopal schools in the United States Preparatory schools in New Hampshire Schools in Concord, New Hampshire Educational institutions established in 1856 1856 establishments in New Hampshire Schools in Merrimack County, New Hampshire School sexual abuse scandals Sex scandals in the United States Ten Schools Admission Organization