Park Tudor at 50: Remembering the Merger of Park School and Tudor Hall

Then: Park Tudor Class of 1971 Now: Park Tudor Class of 2020

The 2020-2021 school year marks the 50th anniversary of the merger of Park School and Tudor Hall to form Park Tudor. In this issue of the Phoenix, we look back to the merger and the opening of our current campus on the site of the former Lilly Orchard.*

In 1964, then-president of the Park School board of trustees, Russ Ryan, wrote to the Lilly family about potentially selling their property on North College Ave. in order to build a new campus. Park’s enrollment had been increasing throughout the early 1960s, but the cost of maintaining the campus on Cold Spring Road were high and growing. The buildings were aging and required constant repair. In addition, Park School’s campus was hemmed in by Marian University, so the ability to expand was limited. In fact, Marian University approached Ryan and the rest of the Park School board to inquire about purchasing the Park School campus so that the University could continue its growth. Another factor that played into Park School’s desire to relocate was the understanding that the population of Indianapolis was moving north. Planning for the construction of I-465 had begun in the early 1960s. Since highway planners routed I-465 nearly 12 miles north of downtown, they all but guaranteed that the suburban expansion of Indianapolis would continue in that direction. Relocating to an area closer to the new I-465 and anticipated suburbs would help to guarantee a steady flow of students in the decades ahead.

Ryan received a reply to his letter in early 1965. John Rauch Sr., the attorney who represented the Lilly family, asked to meet with the entire Park School board in Foster Hall on the Lilly Orchard property. At the meeting, Rauch handed over the deed to the property and told the board that Mr. Eli and Josiah K. Lilly Jr. - both graduates of Park’s predecessor Brooks School - wanted Park to have the property. Said Mr. Eli, “It is quite certain that Mr. J.K. Lilly Sr., my brother, and I would much rather see the orchard, which had meant so much to us all for 70 years, become the campus of a fine school than to have it cut into who knows what kind of real estate venture.”

By May 1965, Marian University had agreed to purchase Park School’s Cold Spring Road campus, creating pressure for a merger of Park with Tudor Hall, whose campus was also adjacent to Marian’s. In fact, Mr. Eli and J.K. Lilly had foreseen

from the moment they decided to donate the Lilly Orchard land to Park.

However, Alma Whitford and the trustees of Tudor Hall were not as eager to pursue a merger with Park School. In fact, Whitford and the Tudor Hall board were working on a master plan for Tudor Hall for the years 1965-1975, addressing enrollment projections along with instructional, financial and construction plans for the next decade. This plan called for new buildings on Tudor Hall’s Cold Spring campus, and in September 1966 the school even broke ground on a new $300,000 residence hall. Clearly, at that point Tudor Hall had no intention of merging with Park School.

However, in the mid-60s Tudor Hall faced many of the same challenges as Park School. While enrollment was growing, expenses were increasing even faster.

In the meantime, Park School proceeded with plans to move its campus to Lilly Orchard, hosting a groundbreaking at the new campus in September 1966, unveiling plans for a Lower School, Middle School and Upper School, as well as a gymnasium. A $400,000 gift by alumnus Allen Clowes for a commons facility on the new campus with a dining area, kitchen, reception and assembly hall kicked off fundraising efforts.

Park School moved to its new campus in September 1967 with a minimum of upheaval. During the first several years on the campus, students, faculty and staff dodged construction equipment and crews. The first buildings to open were the Lower School, which doubled as classroom space for the high school, and Clowes Commons. Construction continued throughout the 1967-68 and 1968-69 school years on the gymnasium and Upper and Middle School buildings. Unfortunately, Tudor Hall’s fortunes had taken a downward turn in the late 1960s. The new dormitory that opened in 1967 had not been the financial boon that Tudor Hall had envisioned. Nationwide, the number of boarding students in girls’ preparatory schools began a precipitous decline after 1967, which negatively affected Tudor Hall enrollment and the school’s bottom line. Still, Tudor Hall’s leadership remained hopeful that the school could survive independently. Said Alma Whitford 1970, “Not until March 1969 did I foresee the inevitability of coeducation and of merger, which I then quickly recommended to the officers of this board.”

Tudor Hall’s board concurred with Whitford’s assessment and trustee objections to the combination of the two schools, which had been all but unthinkable two years before, had all but evaporated by the end of the 1968-69 school year, and on September 22, 1969 the boards of trustees for Park School and Tudor Hall voted unanimously to merge at the beginning of the 1970-71 school year.

Park School headmaster William McCluskey was named headmaster of the combined school; Alma Whitford assisted McCluskey, taught several classes and counseled students. Walter W. Kuhn Jr., 1969-1970 president of the Tudor Hall board of trustees, became the first president of the Park Tudor School board of trustees.

When school opened the week after Labor Day in 1970, nearly 575 students had enrolled in grades K-12, well in excess of the combined enrollment of the two schools at the end of the 1969-70 school year. “The merger is such a splendid success,” said McCluskey just after the beginning of the 1970-71 school year. “No school in the nation has done this, with such a smooth and interesting manner, and we’re delighted with the plan.”

* Excerpted from “Park Tudor School: The First 100 Years”