Westminster School (Connecticut)

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Westminster School
Location
Information
Religion None
Type Private, boarding
Motto Virtute Et Numine
(Grit and Grace)
Mascot The Martlet
Color(s) black and gold
Established 1888
Homepage www.westminster-school.org

Westminster School was founded by William Lee Cushing in 1888 as a boys’ school in Dobbs Ferry, New York. A graduate of Yale University, and a firm believer in the traditional form of English boarding school education, Mr. Cushing was strongly influenced by the Reverend Edward Thring, headmaster of Uppingham School in England. Thring believed in “education as training for life.”

Mr. Cushing’s formula for education was endorsed by many in the emerging influential American families, who sent their sons to Westminster, including John Hay, Advisor to Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State to Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1900, as enrollment increased, Mr. Cushing moved the school to its current location in Simsbury, Connecticut. The move to Simsbury provided more land, which had been donated through a trustee of the school, Arthur M. Dodge, a member of an old Hartford family. Williams Hill, the site of the school, offered more than 230 acres (0.93 km²), with commanding views of the Farmington River. The Simsbury location also provided train service for students to New York and Boston, a boon to families from those areas.

Mr. Cushing remained as headmaster until his death in 1921. Along with his educational philosophy, he also left the school its inspiring motto. The Cushing family coat of arms bears the Latin motto “Virtute et Numine” (literally “by human righteousness and Divine grace”) which is traditionally translated as “Grit and Grace.”

Westminster graduates have gone on to achieve eminent positions in industry, the military, government, social services, the arts, and athletics, thanks to the outstanding teachers and headmasters who followed in the tradition of William Cushing’s teaching ideals of “performing daily tasks cheerfully, fostering an ambition to learn lessons well, playing fair in sports, being clean in thought and word, and cleaving to that which is good.”

In the early 1970s, Westminster School opened its doors to day students and also became a leader among independent schools in active recruitment of minority students. In 1972, girls were admitted for the first time as day students, and in 1977 as boarding students.

W. Graham Cole, Jr., Associate Headmaster and Dean of Faculty at Lawrenceville School, became Westminster’s seventh Headmaster in 1993. In 1996, Water E. Edge, Jr., a member of the Class of 1935, bequeathed $30 million, the largest benefaction to the School in its history. “The wellspring of Mr. Edge’s affection for Westminster flowed from his abiding, high regard for the faculty of this great School,” said Headmaster Cole. “His benefaction testifies eloquently to the transforming power of teachers in the experience of young people, and to the difference those young people can make in their adult lives.”

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[edit] Traditions

Westminster has many traditions including Fall Bonfire, which was originally the time when Freshman boys would throw their ties into the fire to show that they are now a member of the community. Now it is a school spirit event. There is also school wide stickball during the spring term. Through out the year there are duds days giving the students the opportunity to wear casual clothes (usually with a theme) instead of the usual classroom dress.

Hill holidays occur four times during the year. Once during the fall term, again in the winter, and twice during the spring. Hill holidays are days given off from school usually in honor of the birth of a faculty child or another important event. Hill holidays are announced when Headmaster W. Graham Cole is spotted in a building on campus with a hat on (the only time he ever does this).

There is also the sixth form lawn. This lawn, between Cushing and the Baxter Academic Center can only be walked on by sixth formers or alumni because it is a demonstration of their present and past leadership at the school. Many traditions occur on the sixth form lawn, such as the pin ceremony, where new sixth formers are given lapel pins to wear to show that they are the leaders of the school. Before commencement, the fifth formers stand on the pathway that goes through the sixth form lawn while the graduating sixth formers stand on the lawn. The sixth formers pull the fifth form class on as a sign of their new leadership status. At commencement, the graduating sixth formers do not receive their diplomas so they must go onto the senior lawn and stand in a circle. In that circle they pass them around until they receive their own and then they step out of the circle.

Many students favorite tradition is stickball. An game where teams are made up of dormitory floors and compete in a baseball like game on the quad and athletic fields. Each floor must make its own bat, usually a hockey or lacrosse stick that has been cut or a wooden dowel of a large diameter. It takes place during the spring with a certain faculty member being the commissioner who manages the stickball games for the season. The current Commissioner is English and Moral Philosophy teacher and varsity hockey and thirds lacrosse coach Tim Quinn.

[edit] Mission and Core Values

The Westminster community inspires young men and women of promise to cultivate a passion for learning, explore and develop diverse talents in a balanced program, to reach well beyond the ordinary, to live with intelligence and character, and to commit to a life of service beyond self.

Westminster has four core values. Westminster is a small, caring, cohesive, residential community firmly committed to the common good. In addition to prizing intellect, Westminster insists upon and fosters integrity, high ethical standards, leadership, mutual respect, tolerance and teamwork. Westminster maintains, through high expectations and a structured environment, a balance among challenging academic, athletic, artistic and extracurricular programs. Westminster believes that students learn best through active participation in all aspects of school life.

[edit] Sports Program

Westminster offeres a very strong sports prgram, especially excelling in hockey and lacrosse. Westminster offers 17 interscholastic sports, and 3 non-competitive sports, as follows:

FALL SPORTS

WINTER SPORTS

SPRING SPORTS

FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS ACTIVITIES

[edit] Buildings on Campus

  • Cushing Hall - 1900
  • Memorial Hall - 1928 (remolded in 1990's)
  • Squibb House - 1940's (originally called Westminster House)
  • Andrews House - 1950's
  • Baxter Academic Center - 1964
  • Milliken House - 1970's
  • Werner Centennial Center - 1988
  • Edge House - 1998
  • Kohn Squash Pavilion - 2001
  • Sherwin Health and Fitness Center - 2005
  • new Academic Center - 2010
  • Cornwallace Auditorium - 2012

[edit] Dormitories

Each dorm floor has a number of senior (6th form) proctors:

The male Dorms are:

  • Andrew's House (new 3rd and 4th formers, some 5th formers)
  • Memorial Hall (4th, 5th, and 6th formers) (This is the nicest male dorm on campus)
  • Squibb House (4th, 5th, and 6th formers)

The female Dorms are:

  • Milliken House (3rd formers, some 4th formers)
  • Edge House: (4th, 5th, and 6th formers) (This is the nicest female dorm on campus).
  • Cushing House (5th and 6th formers)

[edit] Triva

  • The only place on campus where the Martlet on the school crest has feet is in the Chapel.
  • A season 7 episode of the MTV show Made was filmed over three June days on Westminster campus. It was the episode where the the princess wanted to be a soccer player.
  • Alumni include actresses Joy Bryant and Lake Bell,as well as Peter Fonda (although he left before sixth form year)and former Bachelor star Andrew Firestone, and Boston Bruins drafted hockey player Tommy Cross.

[edit] External links