The Three Marys

The Three Marys

BY TERRY TOMSICK '69

Kent Denver, its beautiful campus, its progressive learning environment, and its joie de vivre, would not now exist but for the Three Marys. The Three Marys—Mary Kent Wallace, Mary Louise Rathvon, and Mary Austin Bogue—and their foresighted vision for the non-religious education of girls in particular, are the foundation for the Kent Denver we celebrate on its 100th anniversary.

Getting there was not easy in a time of little or no women’s rights. The 19th Amendment—permitting women the right to vote—had passed a mere two years before the founding of the Kent School. It was still common practice in the United States to dismiss female teachers who married. Not surprisingly, the Three Marys were life-long single schoolmarms.

There were two predecessor schools to which much credit must be given for the progressive bent of the Three Marys—Wolfe Hall and Wolcott School—and ultimately The Kent School for Girls.

Mary Kent Wallace graduated from Wolfe Hall in 1892, and Mary Louise Rathvon spent her earliest school years as a student there. Following the school’s closure in 1898, a former Wolfe Hall teacher, Miss Wolcott, opened her own school with 100 girls and a few boys scattered in the 1st grade and kindergarten.

New activities were introduced at Wolcott that carried forward to Kent School. For example, physical education was very much emphasized. In 1910, Miss Wolcott pointedly told the Denver Municipal Facts in an interview that Wolcott School is “not a finishing school.” While it had shareholders and a Board of Trustees, it “was not conducted for personal gain or for profit.”

Upon Miss Wolcott’s marriage and departure from The Wolcott School, Mary Kent Wallace was named principal of The Wolcott School. All three Marys were teaching at the Wolcott School by 1917.

However, after her husband’s untimely death, the now widowed Mrs. Wolcott-Vaile returned to “her school” a changed and seemingly more prickly woman.

Following perceived mistreatment of faculty by Mrs. Wolcott-Vaile, Rathvon recalled that she “blew up” and tendered her resignation in the spring of 1922. In a show of solidarity, Mary Kent Wallace and Mary Austin Bogue resigned the same day.

The flashy headlines the next day in Denver read:

Given that it was spring break 1922, the Three Marys repaired to the Anne Evans ranch in Evergreen for her wise advice and to consider opening their own school. Anne Evans was also a life-long single woman who brooked no nonsense and had been a European travel companion of Mary Kent Wallace. She would be an early booster of the trio’s efforts.

By April 1922, the nascent school (still not officially named) published a newspaper announcement whereby it offered a “School of Travel and Study Abroad.” Six months of the year were to be spent in Paris and in Florence, Italy.

This radical notion apparently warranted blazing headlines the next day.

On May 12, 1922, the Three Marys were at their attorney’s office ready to incorporate when they whimsically decided to name their new venture

The Kent School, plain and simple, using Mary Kent Wallace’s middle name.

The original Kent School For Girls opened September 18, 1922.

Most of the history contained in this article is derived from Michael Churchman’s and Aileen Pearson Nelson’s detailed fifty year survey of Kent School history from 1922 - 1973, available in the Margaret Harrington Carey '42 Archives.

For the full version of this article, visit KentDenver.org/ Perspective