Rogers Hall School
Location
Lowell, Massachusetts
Information
School typePrivate, All-Girls
Established1892
FounderElizabeth Rogers
Closed1973
A newspaper advertisement for the Rogers Hall School for Girls in Lowell, Massachusetts, showing a young woman in early 20th-century dress playing golf. The text of the ad touts the school's grounds, and notes that its graduates have attended Vassar, Smith, Wellesley, and other prestigious women's colleges.
A 1906 advertisement for the Rogers Hall School

Rogers Hall School was a college preparatory finishing school for girls with day and boarding students in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Roger's Hall School was founded by Emily and Elizabeth Rogers, who inherited the main building in 1880.[1] Emily, who had been taught by Mary Lyon at Miss Grant's Girls' School for two years, came up with the idea of donating the school's property donated their family's property for the school.[2][1] Though the sisters had planned on donating the land upon their deaths, and Elizabeth persisted in this vision after Emily's 1884 death of pnemonia. Elizabeth decided to donate it in 1892, after meeting E.P. Underhill, who had opened a girls' school in Belvedere.[1] Elizabeth proposed that Underhill be the principal for the school, and she agreed, remaining at the school for 18 years.[3][1] After Elizabeth's death, her estate of about $130,000 was left to Rogers Hall[2]

The school sat on about five acres of the over two-hundred acres the sisters had inherited. In 1892, the school opened with 11 faculty, 41 residential students, and nine day students. The school expected the students to follow the strict Christian ideals that the Rogers sisters had led. This included a strict schedule, with nightly checks of students' stockings for straightness, evaluations of table manners, and lights out by 9:30.[1]

The school was made of four buildings. Rogers Hall, the original school building, later housed boarders. Other boarders stayed at Rogers House, a Victorian mansion near the other buildings. The school also included Rogers Cottage. Finally, the Gymnasium was famous for being the first gymnasium in a private girls' secondary school in the country to have a pool. The pool was built in 1922.[1]

The school's literary magazine was known as Splinters.[4][5]

The school had its peak enrollment in the 1955, with over 100 students. By the 1970s, though, enrollment had fallen to just 47 students, and the school closed its doors in 1973.[1]

The property is now an apartment complex for seniors and people with disabilities.[6]

The school archives are in the collection of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.[7]

Alumni

Notable People

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Lowell's Rogers Hall School for Girls". Lowell Historical Society. July 23, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  2. 1 2 Coburn, Frederick W. (1920). History of Lowell and Its People. Vol. 2. New York City: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 460. LCCN 20002722.
  3. ↑ "The Story of Lowell's Rogers Hall". Forgotten New England. July 23, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Splinters Vol. 1-3".
  5. ↑ "Rogers Hall School Splinters 1900-1969 | Access Genealogy". January 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Peabody Properties, Inc. |".
  7. ↑ Sampas, Tony. "LibGuides: Center for Lowell History Collections: Rogers Hall School for Girls". libguides.uml.edu. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
  8. ↑ Summary, Ames Family Papers, 1812-2008, Sophia Smith Collection, Five College Archives and Manuscript Collections.
  9. ↑ Landrigan, Leslie (June 8, 2015). "The Mysterious Death of Starr Faithfull Reveals the Sordid Secret of a Boston Mayor". New England Historical Society. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Where Women Made History". contest.savingplaces.org. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  11. ↑ "About Rebecca". Rebecca Tobey. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  12. ↑ Nesmith, James Ernest (1897). The Life and Work of Frederic Thomas Greenhalge: Governor of Massachusetts. Roberts Brothers. p. 46.
  13. ↑ Qua, Stanley E. (1944). "Frederick Lawton (1852-1941)". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 75 (6): 169–170. ISSN 0199-9818. JSTOR 20023478.
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