Riverdale Country School
Address
5250 Fieldston Road (Hill Campus)
1 Spaulding Lane (River Campus)

,
New York
10471

United States
Coordinates40°53′59″N 73°54′03″W / 40.89968°N 73.900863°W / 40.89968; -73.900863
Information
TypePrivate, Day, College-prep
MottoMind, Character, Community
Established1907
FounderFrank S. Hackett
Head of schoolDominic A.A. Randolph
GradesPreK–5 at the River Campus
6–12 at the Hill Campus
Enrollment1200
CampusSuburban, 27.5 acres (111,289 m2)
Color(s)Maroon   and Grey  
Athletics conferenceIvy Prep
NYSAISAA
MascotFalcon
AccreditationNew York State Association of Independent Schools
NewspaperThe Riverdale Review
YearbookThe Riverdalian
Websitewww.riverdale.edu

Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is located on two campuses covering more than 27.5 acres (111,000 m2) in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York, United States. Started as a school for boys, Riverdale Country School became fully coeducational in 1972. It currently serves 1,140 students.

History

Hackett Hall on the Hill Campus of Riverdale Country School

Founded in 1907 by Frank Sutliff Hackett and his first wife, Francis Dean (Allen) Hackett, Riverdale Country School is one of the oldest country day schools in the United States. Originally known as the Riverdale School for Boys, it began with 12 students and four teachers and promised scholarly, intimate teaching amid abundant recreational space.[1] Describing his school as "an American experiment in education," Hackett later told The New York Times: "We have tried to transform schools from mere nurseries of the brain into a means of nourishing the whole boy—mind, body, and spirit."[2]

An early advocate of outdoor experiences for young people, Hackett started a summer camp known as Camp Riverdale at Long Lake in the Adirondacks to provide summer recreation for his students.[3] By 1920, Hackett had acquired three acres on Fieldston Road for the school and built a classroom building and dormitory. The 100-room dormitory, designed by McKim, Mead, and White,[4] later became known as Hackett Hall. In 1924, he started the Neighborhood School for boys and girls from grades one to three, and in 1933, the Riverdale Girls School. By World War II, the school attracted both day students and boarders; one student in six or seven came from another country.[5]

Hackett dreamed of expanding the school into an "American World School" and acquired a new site in Riverdale.[6] In 1948, Dwight Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University, spoke at a dedication ceremony at the site.[7] Hackett died before his dream was realized, and the property was sold. In 1972, the Boys and Girls Schools were combined.[2] In 1985, the Middle and Upper Schools were consolidated on the Hill Campus and the Lower School moved to the River Campus. Hackett was an organizer of the Guild of Independent Schools of New York City, and an organizer and president of the Adirondack Mountain Club.[8]

President John F. Kennedy attended the school from 1927 to 1930 when his family lived in Riverdale. During the 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy made an appearance in the Bronx. "I said up the street that I was a former resident of the Bronx," he said. "Nobody believes that, but it is true. No other candidate for the presidency can make that statement."[9]

In the media

Past decades have seen media coverage of Riverdale's racist rhetoric in the 1960s and heavy ideological slant around 2020.

In 2018, Riverdale was in the news[10] for cancelling an Israel-Palestine seminar,[11] purportedly forcing out a teacher who had taught at the school for over 25 years, even though parents stated that he welcomed debate.[12] In a Huffington Post article, titled "How An Elite New York City Prep School Created A Safe Space For Angry Zionists," board members Tal Keinan, Dan Rosen, Seth Berger, and David Westin were reported to have used their status as donors and board members to organize meetings with the Headmaster and pressure him to fire another teacher.[13] The article notes,

"By HuffPost’s calculations, the parents who received the May 30 email had donated upward of $500,000 to Riverdale in the 2016–17 fiscal year alone. (The 2017–18 report has not yet been released.) Because the school lists only funding ranges for donations in its annual report, it is possible the total is far greater. Specifically, an individual or couple is listed as having given anywhere between $10,000 and $24,999, $25,000 to $49,999, over $50,000 and so on — meaning one year’s worth of their donations could easily have surpassed seven figures."[13]

In 2022, media reported that Richard Blumenthal, a senator from Connecticut, had helped establish Riverdale Country School's “Slave Day” when he was president of the student council in 1962. The students performed menial tasks to fund a scholarship for “an especially deserving” foreign student to attend Riverdale. The name of the initiative was soon changed to "Freedom Work Day," and the money given to the NAACP.[14]

Riverdale also attracted attention in 2021, for teaching students to monitor each other in order to determine if they were practicing "allyship" sufficiently, which meant that those rejecting woke ideology would be reported to school administrators.[15] The practice, introduced as a replacement for the Pledge of Allegiance, caused Bion Bartning to withdraw his children from the school, protesting "a kind of religion taking hold in American education that forces people into categories according to their race."[16] Groups of parents had been protesting the school's practice of "leftist indoctrination" in 2019.[17]

Campuses

Mow Hall on the Hill Campus of Riverdale Country School
The Upper Learning Building, completed in 2016, on the River Campus of Riverdale Country School

Covering 19.5 acres (79,000 m2), the Hill Campus is located on Fieldston Road, overlooking Van Cortlandt Park. It is home to the Middle School (6th to 8th) and the Upper School (9th to 12th).

The River Campus (Pre-K to 5th) sits on 8 acres (32,000 m2) along the Hudson River. The land for the River Campus was given to Riverdale by the family of George Walbridge Perkins, an early environmentalist and associate of Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan. The family also donated their adjacent property, Wave Hill, to the City of New York for a public garden and cultural center.[18]

Academics

In addition to college-preparatory courses in math, science, and humanities, Riverdale offers "maker" programs that combine science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, as well as courses in robotics and coding. Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese also are offered. Interdisciplinary courses in the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools encourage students to draw connections across disciplines. Integrated Liberal Studies is required of seniors and concentrates on virtue, the self, social justice, and the environment. Independent projects are also considered.

Riverdale is chartered by the New York State Board of Regents and is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools.[19]

Athletics

Riverdale's Girls' Varsity Crew Team

As of 2017, Riverdale has a total of 31 varsity interscholastic sports teams, many of which also have junior varsity counterparts except for Cross Country, Crew, Golf, Track and Field, Squash and Swimming. In the Spring of 2013, crew was introduced as a varsity sport for boys and girls, while wrestling was officially cut from the list of sports.[20]

Awards

In 2014, Riverdale was awarded the National Athletic Trainers' Association Safe School Award[21] and was declared a National Youth Sports Health & Safety Institute "Best Practices Partner." In 2016, Riverdale was awarded the New York Athletic Training Association's Joseph Abraham Award, which is an award given annually to high schools that provide outstanding athletic injury care to their student athletes.[22]

Student life

Jones Lawn on the Hill Campus

Arts and activities

Upper School students produce one musical and one play each year in the Jeslo Harris theatre.[23] Riverdale students may participate in the jazz and concert bands, orchestra, chamber music ensembles, chorus, dance team, and the a cappella singing groups, the Rivertones and Testostertones. More than 40 student-led clubs, organizations, and service-learning partnerships are offered.

Student publications

The Riverdale Review is Riverdale's student-run paper.[24] Impressions has published the visual art and creative writing of students in the Upper School for almost 30 years.[25] Crossroads is Riverdale’s Middle School Literary and Art Magazine.[26] The Falcon Times is the newsletter of the Middle School.[27] Riverdale's faculty and student body also maintain an online non-fiction literary magazine called The Riverdale Reader.[28]

Notable alumni

Notable staff

Nathan M. Pusey, president of Harvard University, (1953–1971) taught at Riverdale Country School[81] as did Victor L. Butterfield, president of Wesleyan University (1943–1967).[82]

Associations

Riverdale is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York State Association of Independent Schools.[83]

Riverdale Country School, The Fieldston School, and Horace Mann School together are known as the "Hill Schools," as all three are located within two miles (3 km) of each other in the neighborhood of Riverdale on a hilly area above Van Cortlandt Park.

    References

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    2. 1 2 Hanley, Robert. "New Headmaster to Take Over At Riverdale as It Turns Coed", The New York Times, February 3, 1972. Accessed May 8, 2017. "The exclusive school in the Bronx is becoming fully coeducational after 37 years of maintaining separate campuses for boys and girls."
    3. "Camp Riverdale records - Camp Riverdale".
    4. "Riverdale Country School, Hackett Hall - Projects - Beyer Blinder Belle". November 10, 2016.
    5. Quickened Spirit: A Biography of Frank S. Hackett," by Allen Hackett; the Riverdale Country School, 1957
    6. "Riverdale's World School Plans," by Murray Illson; The New York Times, April 27, 1947
    7. "Eisenhower Calls Schools Peace Key: Says At Riverdale Dedication Education Can Defeat Men Seeking Personal Power," The New York Times, October 17, 1948
    8. Dr. Frank Hackett obituary, The New York Times, February 7, 1952
    9. "New York Today: J.F.K. in the Bronx". New York Times. November 20, 2013.
    10. "Bronx teachers lose jobs for sharing anti-Israel views with students". July 7, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
    11. "Riverdale alumni express outrage after elite NYC school cancels Israeli-Palestinian conflict class following parent pressure". Mondoweiss. July 17, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
    12. "Riverdale Teacher Quits As Israel Fight Deepens". The Forward. July 16, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
    13. 1 2 "How An Elite New York City Prep School Created A Safe Space For Angry Zionists". HuffPost. August 21, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
    14. Morris, Kyle (October 20, 2022). "Senate Dem part of high school group that held 'Slave Day,' used racial slur repeatedly in college writing". Fox News.
    15. Dreher, Rod. "Racist Riverdale". The American Conservative. Retrieved October 1, 2023.
    16. Pavia, Will (April 28, 2021). "Woke wars at New York's elite schools (fees $50,000)". The Times. Archived from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
    17. Silverman, Robert (February 28, 2019). "How An Elite New York City Prep School Created A Safe Space For Angry Zionists". The Huffington Post.
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    22. "NYSATA – JOSEPH ABRAHAM AWARD". gonysata2.org. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
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    29. 1 2 Foxley, David. "Ed Hayes Takes On Riverdale Country School", New York Observer, April 23, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2017. "He was talking about Riverdale Country School, the chi-chi private school where tuition is $33,000 a year and which counts MSNBC’s Dan Abrams, The New Yorker’s theater critic John Lahr and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell among its alumni."
    30. 1 2 Longwell, Todd. "Appelbaum & Nemec : Friendship leads to big-budget Mission", Variety (magazine), December 2, 2011. Accessed March 6, 2017. "It’s not surprising to hear Appelbaum and Nemec complete each other’s sentences. They’re not just longtime professional partners — they’ve been friends since they were third-graders at Riverdale Country School, a K-12 preparatory academy in New York."
    31. Barnet, Charlie; and Dance, Stanley. Those Swinging Years: The Autobiography of Charlie Barnet, p. 4. Da Capo Press, 1992. ISBN 9780306804922. Accessed March 6, 2017. "I was at several different schools during this period and most of my stays were uneventful, but I had my first run-in with the rules of society when I was attending Riverdale Country School at the age of twelve."
    32. Monroe, R.A. "Love at First Lab; Chemist Jacqueline Barton blazes a trail with innovative DNA research", Barnard magazine, Winter 2016. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Barton grew up in New York City, where she attended the Riverdale Country School for Girls."
    33. Grimes, William. "Rosalyn Baxandall, Feminist Historian and Activist, Dies at 76", The New York Times, October 14, 2015. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Ms. Baxandall attended Riverdale Country School in the Bronx and Hunter High School in Manhattan."
    34. Wallace, William N. "FENCING; Mild, Modest Teen-Ager Knows How to Seize a Championship", The New York Times, July 11, 1995. Accessed May 8, 2017. "Rather than start college in the fall, Bayer, who graduated from Riverdale Country Day, will devote his time entirely to fencing with his goal set on the Olympic Games at Atlanta next year."
    35. Rich, Motoko. "Rejoice, Muffy and Biff: A Preppy Primer Revisited", The New York Times, April 3, 2010. Accessed March 6, 2017. "'I didn’t think people wanted to be like us,' said Ms. Birnbach, who attended Riverdale Country School and Brown University, then went on to enjoy what some might called the Life Well-Prepped: writing college guides and co-writing books about friendship, motherhood and being Jewish, as well as working a stint as a correspondent on CBS’s Early Show."
    36. Illson, Murray. "INTERVIEW; U.S. Attorney at Age 31", The New York Times, July 17, 1977. Accessed May 8, 2017.(subscription required)
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    39. Hoffman, Barbara. "JFK’s forgotten free-spirited sister was the most cursed of them all; JFK’s forgotten free-spirited sister was the most cursed of them all", New York Post, January 16, 2016. Accessed May 8, 2017. "Like her brother the future president, Kathleen Agnes Kennedy — the fourth child of Rose and Joseph, future ambassador to the UK — was born in Brookline, Mass. After the family’s move to Bronxville, she attended the Riverdale Country School until her mother decided it was time for an education that precluded contact with the opposite sex."
    40. Buffa, Denise; Fermino, Jennifer; and Mangan, Dan. "PERP SCHOOL: '500G THIEF' BOOKKEEPER BUSTED AT RITZY RIVERDALE", New York Post, May 25, 2007. Accessed October 23, 2008. Archived September 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
    41. Beekman, Daniel. "Bronx pastor's higher calling: Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook becoming Obama's religious freedom ambassador", New York Daily News, May 4, 2011. Accessed March 6, 2017. "The Riverdale Country School and Harvard University grad, who lived on the Grand Concourse before moving to Suffolk County, has traveled to five continents preaching tolerance."
    42. Kurtz, Howard. "Richard Engel sticks with combat coverage despite loss; NBC's war horse in IraqRichard Engel perseveres with combat coverage despite severe personal loss", Houston Chronicle, October 31, 2006. Accessed March 6, 2017. "'He was a great writer,' says Ross Peet, a classmate at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx."
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    48. Diamond, David. "James Gleick's Survival Lessons", Wired, August 1999. Accessed June 17, 2009. "Gleick attended Riverdale Country School, where JFK once studied, and excelled in mathematics and science."
    49. 1 2 via Associated Press. "Film inventors weren't just whistling Brahms", Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1985. Accessed March 6, 2017. "The product invented by Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky Jr. remains the best-selling color slide film in the world, Kodak says.... Kodachrome began to develop in the men's minds as early as 1916, when they were inquisitive 15-year-old students at Riverdale Country School in New York City."
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    51. Katz, Michael. "CALVIN HILL A FAN AGAIN AT 34", The New York Times, December 12, 1981. Accessed March 6, 2017. "If there is poetic justice in the N.F.L., Hill will play against the Jets, a team representing the city where he was a prep school sensation at Riverdale Country School."
    52. "She's Her Mother's Daughter, but Her Life's Plot is All Her Own". Los Angeles Times. September 10, 2001.
    53. Kao, John. Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, p. 30. HarperBusiness, 1996. ISBN 9780887307461. Accessed March 6, 2017. "My parents decided not to risk my future in the wasteland of a New York City public high school, and instead sent me to a more rigorous institution, the Riverdale Country School."
    54. "Claude Kelly Clinic", Berklee College of Music. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Kelly's mother was serious about his education too. He attended the noted private school Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, and he performed around New York with the New York Boys Choir."
    55. Colangelo, Lisa L. "Ron Kim, first Korean-American elected to state Legislature, urges teens to pursue their passions", New York Daily News, October 20, 2013. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Like other immigrants, they worked around the clock so their only child, Ron, could attend the elite Riverdale Country Day School."
    56. Newman, Andy; and Burgess, Joseph. "New York Today: J.F.K. in the Bronx", The New York Times, November 20, 2013. Accessed March 6, 2017. "At the Riverdale Country School, Mr. Kennedy was not a star student."
    57. Schneider, Steven K. Robert F. Kennedy, p. 14. iUniverse, 2001. ISBN 9780595137015. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Robert attended the public and private schools in Hyannis Port, Bronxville Public School for the third, fourth and fifth grades. and the private Riverdale Country Day School."
    58. Barber, Charles. Corresponding with Carlos: A Biography of Carlos Kleiber, p. 28. Scarecrow Press, 2011. ISBN 0810881438. "He was enrolled at the private Riverdale Country School, graduating there in June 1948."
    59. Staff. "Diane M. Connal Wed To Gerard T. Koeppel", The New York Times, May 18, 1987. Accessed May 8, 2017. "Mr. Koeppel, the news producer for the Mutual Radio Network in New York, graduated from the Riverdale Country Day School and Wesleyan University."
    60. Staff. "Riverdale alum addresses seniors", Riverdale Press, June 19, 2008. Accessed May 8, 2017. "David Levin, a Riverdale alumnus who founded the KIPP Academy charter school in the South Bronx, gave the commencement address."
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    62. Fitzpatrick, Frank. "MacPhail continues family's baseball tradition with Phillies", Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 2015. Accessed March 6, 2017. "He also played the game throughout his youth, at Riverdale Country Day School in the Bronx, with the amateur New Rochelle Robins, and finally at Dickinson."
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    65. "Riverdale Country School Names Milstein Terrace to Recognize Longtime Support – Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation".
    66. McLannahan, Ben. " Steven Mnuchin, a hardball banker set for the TreasuryFormer Goldmanite anointed by Trump lacks big stage experience, writes Ben McLannahan", Financial Times, December 2, 2016. Accessed March 6, 2017. "One of five children, Steven was sent to New York’s elite Riverdale Country School and then to Yale."
    67. Rosenthal, Dave. "Q&A with author Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore", The Baltimore Sun, April 29, 2010. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Q: The Bronx wasn't the answer for you, even when your mother sent you to Riverdale Country School in the one plush part of the borough.... [A]... The Riverdale story illustrates that. It's a beautiful school, and my mother knew all about it from the time she was a girl; she knew that JFK went there."
    68. Wolfer, Sondra. "Olympic fencer Tim Morehouse takes his stab at being the best", New York Daily News, July 21, 2008. Accessed August 5, 2008. "As a young teen, Tim Morehouse took up fencing at the Riverdale Country School as an excuse to get out of gym class."
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    73. "The Ticker – Bugle Boy Files For Bankruptcy," by The Associated Press, New York Daily News, February 3, 2001.
    74. "Speakers and Performers", Riverdale Country School. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Oct. 22: 'The Changing World of News and Media.' Moderator: David Faber, News Analyst and Anchor, CNBC. Panelists: Margery Baker-Riker '66, Former Vice President, CBS News; Sanford Cannold '86, Producer, CNBC; Robin Pogrebin '83, Culture Reporter, The New York Times; and Kay Madati '91, Chief Digital Officer, Black Entertainment Television."
    75. Edward Rendell Archived November 29, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Accessed March 6, 2017. "He attended the prestigious Riverdale Country School for three out of the four years he was in high school, and in the 1961 yearbook from the school, the editors noted, 'Eddie has a good chance for success in politics, his chosen profession.'"
    76. Huff, Richard. "Ros is on Track in Race Against Fear", New York Daily News, September 7, 1998. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Having been on the track team when she attended the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, Tracee Ellis Ross was intrigued when a script came her way for which she'd play a track star."
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    80. Fields, Jason. "Zagat gives local restaurants a boost", The Riverdale Press, October 15, 2009. Accessed March 6, 2017. "Tim Zagat, who founded the survey as a hobby in 1979, and is a graduate of Riverdale Country School — class of 1957 — says that Riverdale deserves some attention for the variety of cuisines on offer."
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