Phillips Academy

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Phillips Academy
Image:PASEAL1.jpg
Non Sibi
(Not for One's Self)
Finis Origine Pendet
(The End Depends Upon the Beginning)
Established 1778
School type Independent, Boarding
Head of school Barbara Landis Chase
Location Andover, MA, USA
Campus Suburban, 500 acres (2 km²)
Enrollment 1,102 total
802 boarding
300 day
Faculty 217
Average class size 13 students
Student:teacher
ratio		 5:1
Average SAT
scores (2005)		 697 verbal
691 math
Athletics 30 sports
Color(s) Blue and White
Mascot Gunga, the Gorilla

Phillips Academy (also known as Andover, Phillips Andover, or simply P.A.) is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day students in grades 9-12. The school is located in Andover, Massachusetts, north of Boston.

Phillips Academy is the oldest continuously running incorporated boarding school in the United States, established in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr. Phillips' uncle founded Phillips Exeter Academy three years later, starting a rivalry that has continued through the centuries; the Governor's Academy (formerly Governor Dummer Academy) was founded in 1763. Phillips Academy's endowment stood around $622.8 million on June 5, 2005, the third-highest of any American secondary school. This is less than the $706 million endowment of Exeter, [1] but far behind the $6.8 billion of Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii. [2]

The academy traditionally educated its students for Harvard and Yale, but students now matriculate to a wide range of colleges and universities. Among other notable alumni, Andover has educated two American Presidents, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, and four Medal of Honor recipients, Capt. Thomas J. Hudner Jr., Rear Admiral Richard H. O'Kane, Major General James Parker, and Arthur Murray Preston.

The Phillipian, the school's student-run newspaper, is the oldest secondary school newspaper in the US. Likewise, the Philomathean Society is the oldest high school debate society in the nation, established in 1825.

The school's grading system, on a scale of one to six, is rather unusual. The office of the dean of studies claims that there is no formal equivalent between the one to six system and a conventional letter grade system. However, a six is considered outstanding and is (ideally) rarely awarded, a five is the lowest honors grade, and a two is the lowest passing grade.

Contents

[edit] History

Phillips Academy was founded during the American Revolution as an all-boys school in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr., a member of the important revolutionary war family, the Phillips. The great seal of the school was designed by Paul Revere. George Washington spoke at the school in its first year and was so impressed that he recommended that his nephews go there, which they did; one of Gilbert Stuart's famous portraits of Washington hangs above the front desk. John Hancock, the famous signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, signed the school's articles of incorporation.

Phillips Academy's traditional rival is Phillips Exeter Academy, established three years later in Exeter, New Hampshire by Samuel Phillips' uncle, Dr. John Phillips. The football teams have met nearly every year since 1878, making it one of the oldest high school rivalries in the country.

Portions of Andover's campus were laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park and himself a graduate of the school. It is dominated by neo-Georgian architecture and centered around the several-acre Great Lawn. Campus structures include the Memorial Bell Tower, which recently underwent a $5 million renovation, Samuel Phillips Hall, Bulfinch Hall, and Pearson Hall.

Paul Revere incorporated bees, a beehive, and the sun into his design of the school's seal. The school's primary motto, Finis Origine Pendet, meaning "the end depends upon the beginning," is scrolled across the bottom of the seal. The school's second motto, Non Sibi, located in the sun, means "not for oneself." Phillips Academy was chartered to educate "qualified youth from every quarter."

Phillips Academy offers a broad curriculum and extracurricular activities that include music ensembles, 30 competitive sports, a campus newspaper, a radio station, and a debate club. The academy raised $208 million through "Campaign Andover," which brought its endowment to around $550 million in 2004.[3]

In 1973, Phillips Academy merged with neighboring Abbot Academy, which was founded in 1829 as the first school for girls in New England and named for Sarah Abbot.

[edit] Facilities

[edit] Academic facilities

Samuel Phillips Hall
Enlarge
Samuel Phillips Hall

Bulfinch Hall was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch and built in 1819. It is now the English Department building.

The Gelb Science Center was paid for mainly by the wealthy alumnus Richard Gelb and opened for classes in January 2004. The center contains twenty laboratories, classrooms, seminar rooms, instrument rooms, preparatory areas, study-session spaces, and a roof-top astronomical observatory, and is the newest building on campus. [4]

Graham House is used by both the school's Psychology Department and the school's psychological counselors.

Morse Hall is home to the Math Department, student publications, CAMD (Community and Multicultural Development), and WPAA — a student run radio station. Morse Hall is named after Samuel Morse, who graduated from Phillips Academy in 1805 and later invented the telegraph.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL) takes its namesake from the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., an 1825 graduate of Phillips Academy. The library houses 120,000 books, the Phillips Academy Computer Center (PACC), a video library, and subscriptions to roughly 250 periodicals.

Samuel Phillips Hall (Sam Phil) was built in 1924 and named after the founder of the school. This building houses the World Languages Department and the History and Social Sciences Department, as well as the "Language Learning Center," a computer lab with video, audio, and programs designed to supplement classroom work in language classes.

Pearson Hall, one of the oldest structures on campus, is the classics building. The only subjects with classes that meet in Pearson are Latin, Greek, Greek literature, mythology, and etymology. It was named after the school's first headmaster, Eliphalet Pearson. The Board of Trustees recently announced that Pearson might turn into a Community Center, but the plan has since been put on hold due to a strong response from students, faculty, and alumni.

[edit] Arts and student life facilities

The Addison Gallery of American Art is an art museum given to the school by alumnus Thomas Cochran. It is widely considered one of the finest small museums in America and its last two directors have gone on to direct the Yale University Art Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Its permanent collection includes Winslow Homer's "Eight Bells," along with work by John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, Thomas Eakins, James McNeill Whistler, Frederic Remington, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella and Andrew Wyeth. It was one of the first museums in America to seriously collect photography, and took an early and prescient interest in artists such as Carleton Watkins and Margaret Bourke-White, with the result that its photography collection is equal to some of the largest museums in America. Another strength is in decorative arts, with silver and furniture dating back to pre-colonial America, and a fine collection of colonial model ships. A rotating schedule of exhibitions, including current ones of William Wegman and Southworth and Hawes, is open to students and the public alike.

Cochran Chapel is a neo-Georgian church located on the north side of campus, and is the center of religious life on campus for students and faculty. It is also home to the Department of Religion and Philosophy, and to the Community Service Program. The Chapel hosts many concerts, lectures and gatherings throughout the year, and a weekly All School Meeting is held here on Wednesdays.

Winslow Homer's Eight Bells, part of the Addison Gallery's Permanent Collection
Enlarge
Winslow Homer's Eight Bells, part of the Addison Gallery's Permanent Collection

Commons is the school's dining hall. It has four large dining rooms along with three smaller rooms, which may be utilized by classes or speakers for eating in a more personal environment. Students are often intensely loyal to specific dining rooms--lower left, lower right, upper left, and upper right. Commons also houses the Ryley Room, a grill-style student hangout, in the basement of Commons.

George Washington Hall was built in 1926. The building serves numerous functions, including an administration building (Head of School's office, among others), a post-office (the student's mail room), and the school's arts complex (with the Elson Arts Center, the Polk-Lillard Electronic Imaging and Audio-Visual Center, and both the Tang and Steinbach theaters).

Graves Hall is the music building, with classrooms, a concert hall, a record library, and practice studios.

The Robert S. Peabody Museum was founded in 1901 and is now "one of the nation's major repositories of Native American archaeological collections." The collection includes materials from the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Mexico and the Arctic, and range from Paleo Indian (10,000+ years ago) to the present day. Since the early 1990s, the museum has been forced to return artifacts in its collection under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It is currently only open by appointment due to the high cost of constant operation and low attendance.

[edit] Residential facilities

In addition to the above mentioned facilities, the school also includes a number of dormitories to serve the roughly 800 students that board. These buildings range in size from housing as few as four to as many as 40 students. Two notable dorms are America House, where the patriotic hymn America was penned[5], and Stowe House, where American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) lived while her husband taught at the Andover Theological Seminary[5]. Stowe is also buried on campus in a cemetery behind Samuel Phillips Hall[6].

[edit] Athletics

[edit] Fall

[edit] Winter

[edit] Spring

[edit] Non-interscholastic

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.exienet.net/pages/par_acadfacts.html
  2. ^ http://www.ksbe.edu/allpdfs/annualreport04/6_strengthening_endowment.pdf
  3. ^ Phillips Academy raises $208.9 Million
  4. ^ Phillips Academy Andover, New Gelb Science Center
  5. ^ a b Information about America and Stowe House
  6. ^ Find-A-Grave Entry on Harriet Beecher Stowe, buried on Phillips Academy Campus

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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