FROM THE ARCHIVES
The History of the Science Building In February, Head of School Peter Becker shared with current families and faculty that Sasaki, an interdisciplinary design firm located outside of Boston, had been selected as the architect for a science, math and technology center project on campus. We looked into the Paula and George Krimsky ’60 Archives and Special Collections to learn more about the history of where science has been taught on campus. According to “Gunnery Stories,” a history of the school compiled by the late Paula Gibson Krimsky, planning for the current Science Building began in 1965, “although the need for one had been apparent much earlier. The first science labs were installed in the schoolhouse in 1893 when the school engaged John Perkins to teach chemistry and physics. There were places for six students in the lab,” Krimsky wrote, noting that Perkins went on to found in 1903 what is now Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. In her 2019 Gunn Scholar report, The Science Building circa 2015 “How Everything Came to Be,” Joey Lin ’19 cited an article from The Gunnery News, published in May 1966, Construction began in 1966. A announcing plans for a new Science Building. The school engaged dedication ceremony took place on the architectural firm of Gilbert Switzer of New Haven, and the late May 20, 1967, as part of the 73rd annual Augustus Kellogg ’52 was the associate in charge of the project. Alumni Day festivities. Tours of the building were offered in the afternoon. There were 250 guests in attendance, Lin said, noting that Headmaster Ogden D. Miller H’69 P’50 ’54 ’55 GP’84 was credited as a driving force Gus Kellogg ’52 behind the project. Program notes on file in the archives show F. Bruce Bradshaw ’51, President of the Alumni Association, participated in the ribbon cutting along with Ned Swigart P’82, Chairman of the Science Department, Switzer, Kellogg, Edmund Sinnott, Ph.D., Sterling Professor Emeritus of Botany at Yale University, and Lloyd Elston ’44 P’68 ’70 GP’05 ’06 ’10, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. A computer lab was added to the Science Building in the early 1970s, Gunn Scholar Gwendolyn Brown ’20 noted in her report, The schoolhouse, shown in this photo from the archives, circa 1890s, “The Gunnery’s Adoption of Technology.” Computer programming was designed by Ehrick Rossiter of the Class of 1870, and built in classes were taught there, and by 1974, three students had formed a 1882 under the administration of Headmaster John C. Brinsmade. 20
The Frederick Gunn School Bulletin
