Buckingham Browne & Nichols
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| Name |
Buckingham Browne & Nichols |
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| Address |
80 Gerry's Landing Road |
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| Town |
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 |
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| B & N |
founded in 1883 |
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| Buckingham |
founded in 1889 |
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| B B & N |
merged in 1974 |
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| Type |
Private School |
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| Nickname |
BB&N |
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| Mascot |
Knight |
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| Colors |
Blue and Gold |
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| Motto |
Honestas, Litterae, Comitas (Honesty, Scholarship, and Kindness) |
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| Song |
Jerusalem |
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| Newspaper |
The Vanguard |
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| Yearbook |
The Perspective |
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| Website | ||
Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, often referred to as BB&N, is a private school located in Cambridge, Massachusetts by the Charles River. The school educates students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. The Directors of the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools are Susan Scarborough, Mary Dolbear, and Jack Knapp, respectively. The Head of School is Rebecca Upham.
Contents |
[edit] History
Browne & Nichols School, founded in 1883, merged with Buckingham School, founded in 1889 to form BB&N in 1974. Since the merger, BB&N has been located on three campuses. The Upper School, grades 9-12, is located at 80 Gerry's Landing Road. The Middle School, grades 7-8, is on Sparks Street, and the Lower School, grades pre-K-6, is on Buckingham Street. Boston Magazine ranked BB&N # 5 in the top 25 best high schools in 2006 for greater Boston. BB&N achieved # 3 out of 61 private schools ranked in the 2004 Boston Magazine survey.
Edwin H Baker Pratt was headmaster of Browne & Nichols from 1959 - 1968.
[edit] Arts
BB&N possesses a renowned art department. The school is currently under construction with a main focus of updating the current arts facilities and building new ones. BB&N requires its students to take one semester of a "performance art" and one semester of a "visual art" during their freshmen year. The performance art could be drama, orchestra, film, choir, or dance. Visual courses offered include photography, drawing & painting, and printmaking, among others. Students are also required to take one more year-long course in the arts before they graduate, but many take arts classes in each of their four years.
BB&N also has a theater program, which each trimester (sports season) sees the production of one full-length play complete with a set, lighting and costumes. The fall show is typically a drama, often Shakespeare, while the winter show is almost always a musical. The spring show is traditionally open exclusively to Seniors, and is directed and produced by students with the supervision of the theatre teacher. It is often smaller and less technical, because many seniors choose not to participate during their "senior project," limiting the cast available.
[edit] Bivouac and Senior Project
The upper school has a number of unique programs for their students, designed to create unity in each class and encourage independent thinking. The first of these is "Bivouac," a two-week-long camping trip at the school's property in Harrisville, New Hampshire at the beginning of each freshmen year. The freshman class meets in front of the upper school building before classes start, and are bussed up to the Bivouac location (the former Camp Marienfeld) near Mount Monadnock. Upon arrival, the class is divided into numbered "squads" of 7-10 students, each with a faculty "guide." They are given tarps, tents, cots and sleeping pads, as well as a set of pots, pans, and plates, and a "wangan" box for food storage. The students build a sheltered cooking and eating area themselves, as well as dig a toilet facility, and construct all furniture from wooden poles and rope. They cook over open fires and participate in nature hikes and ropes courses, while getting to know their classmates.
The experience is meant to be a challenge from which students can learn. The physicality of 12 days in the woods is often a new experience to many students. Many students form close bonds during the experience, while others resent the social pressures of exclusion that can develop, while still others are left merely nonplussed.
"Senior Project" comprises the last eight weeks of the Senior Year at BB&N. Students design their project themselves, and are required to account for 40 hours a week. Students may take "mini-courses" offered by many faculty, or continue to participate in AP classes and sports teams. They may also engage in an independent study, or art project. Students have gotten internships, taught classes, volunteered for political campaigns, and many other projects. Many seniors use this time as an opportunity to complete their community service requirement, which is 40 hours total for their high school careers. The school describes "Senior Project" as a chance for students to take more responsibility for themselves and their time, but often seniors use the time as an excuse to relax and party before graduation.
[edit] The Vanguard
The official newspaper of BB&N is The Vanguard, which has been the recipient of many prestigious awards for high school journalism, including a gold medal from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. It was founded in 1973 by John Decker. Published monthly (eight issues/year), the paper is entirely student-run. The editor at large of The New Republic, Peter Beinart, is a former Vanguard writer, and Mindy Kaling was the comedic back page columnist for two years. The Vanguard has featured interviews with Bill Clinton and Howard Dean.
[edit] Athletics
The school has a traditional rivalry with the Belmont Hill School. The rivalry has heated up in recent years as both football teams have been very competitive. In 2005 the teams played in Boston College's Alumni Stadium, with Bel Hill edging out a victory. The two league co-MVPs were from BB&N and Belmont Hill that year. In 2006, both teams were again undefeated. BB&N took a 15-14 lead late in the 4th quarter, but Bel Hill responded with a long touchdown pass on a tipped ball to win in a very exciting and competitive game.
[edit] History
The school's team name, the Knights, has its origins in a 1920s Boston Globe article, which referred to the school's rowing team, with likes of Harvard, MIT and Kent School, as "the Black Knights of the Charles" - a reference to the team name of the United States Military Academy, the highly successful "Black Knights of the Hudson." In addition to taking the team name, Browne & Nichols also took black and white as its colors after the article. Buckingham School's colors, blue and gold, were made official school colors after the merger.
[edit] Overview
In athletics, BB&N is a member of the Independent School League. The Nicholas Athletic Center, located at the Gerry's Landing campus, contains various new equipment and courts, from indoor crew tanks to six tennis courts and an ice hockey rink, five basketball courts, and fitness center with the most up-to-date machines. Across the street, the school's historic red boathouse on the Charles River serves as a home to the school's crew team. The school was the first American schoolboy crew to win the Henley Royal Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, England, winning the Thames Challenge Cup in 1929.
[edit] Accolades
In 2004 the boy's soccer team won the New England Class A Championship, the varsity sailing team was undefeated in the regular season and the football team made an appearance in the class finals. In the past four years, BB&N wrestling has had 6 league champions, 4 league runner-ups, and multiple league placers, and has had multiple representatives at the national tournament and New England tournament.
Over the years, BB&N's most successful sport has been baseball. The team has won multiple ISL titles and there are many college baseball rosters with former BB&N baseball players. Probably BBN's most well known alum for his athletics, Zak Farkes, is currently in the Boston Red Sox minor league organization at Single A Greenville, SC. The BB&N baseball team is currently coached by athletic director Rick Forestiere.
[edit] Obligatory Status
Students of the BB&N upper school must fulfill a "sports requirement" for each season (fall, winter, and spring) although the academic year is divided into two semesters, copying the Harvard system. Many students who are not interested in excelling at athletics compete on the "third teams," which are less intensely competitive than the varsity or junior varsity divisions. Students may also file a "sports waiver" for one season each year, either to engage in P.E. during a free period, or engage in an off-campus activity such as dance or martial arts. Students may also file a sports waiver in order to work on the season's play, either as an actor, stage manager, or "techie".
[edit] Notable alumni
[edit] Browne & Nichols
- Horace Bright, class of 1913, investor
- Robert Bradford, class of 1924, governor of Massachusetts
- Paul C Sheeline, class of 1938, president of Intercontinental Hotels
- Richard A Smith, class of 1942, president of General Cinemas, later CEO of Harcourt General
- Charles Colson, class of 1949, chief counsel to President Nixon, Watergate indictee
- Anthony Perkins, class of 1950, actor most famous for Psycho, Equus, and Friendly Persuasion
- Anton Kuerti, class of 1952, pianist
- Damon Mezzacappa, class of 1954,founder of Mezzacappa Management & Vice-Chair Lazard Freres
- Benjamin Bradlee Jr., class of 1966, Boston Globe journalist
- Jeffrey Lurie, class of 1969, owner of Philadelphia Eagles
- Andy Pratt (singer-songwriter), class of 1969, rock music singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
- Patrick Sullivan, class of 1971, former general manager of New England Patriots
- Gardner Cox, painter
[edit] Buckingham
- Ellen Goodman, class of 1959, cummer award-winner
- Sylvia Poggioli, Class of 1964, NPR European Correspondent
[edit] BB&N
- John G. Simon, class of 1980, venture capitalist, founder of UroMed, Rhodes Scholar
- Abigail Johnson, class of 1980, Fidelity Investments
- Kyle Kadlick, class of 1987, general manager of Microsoft
- Michael Moynihan, class of 1987, author
- Peter Beinart, class of 1989, editor of New Republic & Rhodes Scholar
- Mindy Kaling, class of 1997, actress and writer on NBC's The Office and the acclaimed play Matt and Ben
- Ari Graynor, class of 2001, actress
- Nathaniel Davis, on the board of directors at XM Satellite Radio
- John Spitzer, chair of music history and literature at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
- Michael Beam, class of 1990, author of Cocoa in a Nutshell
- Brad Sohn, class of 1998, screenwriter and professional poker player.
- Kenny Melillo, class of 2003, goalie for District 5.
| Members of the Independent School League, New England |
| Belmont Hill School | Buckingham Browne & Nichols | Brooks School | The Governor's Academy | Groton School | Lawrence Academy at Groton | Middlesex School | Milton Academy | Noble and Greenough School | Rivers School | Roxbury Latin School | St. George's School | St. Mark's School | St. Paul's School | St. Sebastian's School | Thayer Academy |
