Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School: Alternative Education for More than a Century

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 48, 1980, No. 3

Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School: Alternative Education for More than a Century

BY MARY R. CLARK

UTAH'S EDUCATIONAL HERITAGE is rich and varied, as old in some cases as the original settlements themselves. One element of that heritage is the significant contribution made by mission schools. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, schools such as those established by Episcopalian missionaries in Salt Lake City set new standards for education in Utah. Speaking of the high level of education achieved by the public school system in 1915, Superintendent D. H. Christensen said,

Among the contributing factors an important place must be given to the mission school. . . . With this school came the enrichment of the curriculum. Music and art soon became daily exercises, nature study was introduced into the primary grades, and the study of Latin, of algebra and geometry by pupils in seventh and eighth grades under trained teachers was not uncommon. The standard had been set, the transition was under way. Public sentiment was crystallizing. If the public school was to compete with the mission school it must have an enriched course of study and professionally trained teachers.

In addition to providing an enriched curriculum taught by a welltrained faculty, the Episcopal schools in Salt Lake City, like several other mission schools in the state, led the way in providing high school education for both boys and girls. Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School, which originated with the early mission schools, has a unique history that reflects not only the development of educational standards in Utah but also the changing role of private schools in America.

THE MISSION SCHOOLS

"The Episcopal Church considers education as the chief handmaiden of religion." So wrote the Reverend Thomas W. Haskins recalling the early days of the Episcopal Mission in Salt Lake City. Haskins, then a deacon, together with the Reverend George W. Foote, established the first non-Mormon day school in Utah. Securing a half-ruined adobe bowling alley on the east side of Main Street between Second and Third South, the clergymen spent $1,000 donated largely by friends in New York to remodel it into a two-room schoolhouse equipped with plain pine desks. It opened with sixteen students on July 1, 1867, the day before Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle arrived in the Salt Lake Valley by stagecoach.

Within a week enrollment had more than doubled, due largely to the efforts made by Warren Hussey, banker and promoter, and Theodore Tracy, Wells Fargo agent, to recruit students from among their friends and business associates. Haskins became the first headmaster, and both he and Foote taught in the school for a few hours each day. Sarah Foote, Mrs. Tuttle's younger sister, was employed for thirty-five dollars a month to take charge of the advanced students, while a Miss Wells, an apostate Mormon who had come across the plains at the age of six, taught the youngest students in return for the salary of twenty-five dollars a month. Books were supplied by benefactors in the East, as were many scholarships of forty dollars a year. While the younger children learned the basic "three R's," the older boys and girls studied Latin, Greek, and mathematics under the tutelage of the clergy, as well as English composition and rhetoric as taught by Miss Foote.

The mission school attracted students from the entire community and soon outgrew its original quarters. In 1900 Bishop Tuttle recollected:

For the first year we were in the old bowling alley which was situated where the Walker House now stands. For the second year we occupied Independence Hall. Now, for this coming third year, we rented Groesbeck's old store on Main Street, for $40 a month. Here, overflowing into two other old stores contiguous, St. Mark's school was housed, until we had built the new schoolhouse, opposite the City Hall, in 1872. The school had opened in 1873 with one hundred and eighteen scholars. Miss Davenport, an experienced teacher in the public schools, from Brooklyn, was to be the caretaker. After making my Idaho visitation I was myself to assume direct personal charge.

One of the aims of the school was to give boys and girls a thorough and practical high school education. Special courses were offered to prepare boys for entrance to eastern colleges. In the words of a modern historian,

The education offered by St. Mark's and the other mission schools was usually of a standard somewhat above that of the common schools. A pupil at St. Mark's from 1870 to 1874 later commented that "scholastically [St. Mark's] was quite up to the then average of American schools.

In this endeavor, the school was supported by orthodox Mormons as well as by apostates and Gentiles. Converts to the LDS faith from Great Britain were "at the center of Utah's intellectual and artistic life." In nineteenth-century England the Anglican clergyman was often the most educated man in the parish, and boys who wished to sit for college qualifying examinations were sent to him for tutoring, regardless of their religious affiliation. If this was one reason that some orthodox Mormons were willing to send their children to school with the children of apostates and Gentiles, another was that there were no good public high schools in the territory before the arrival of mission schools. So Bishop Tuttle was able to relate:

Apostate Mormons hailed with delight the opening of our schools and gladly sent us their children, willingly paying for their instruction if they were able to do so. Even some of the orthodox Mormons sent their children. They said they wanted their children to get a good education, and they declared that our schools were the best places in the country for them to get this education. They said furthermore: We can look after our children in the home and on Sundays, and can see to it that they do not embrace the heresies of the mission schools. Therefore we have no hesitation in sending them to you for the good mental training they will get from you.

Partly as a result of its early success and partly because of the influx of Gentiles into Salt Lake City following the completion of the transcontinental railroad, St. Mark's School continued to grow. In 1871 it enrolled 310 students. However, the school was also affected by other local events. The Godbeite schism and the New Movement which challenged the economic policies of LDS leaders, the rising agitation for free schools, and the increasing number of Gentiles determined to wipe out polygamy produced a large wave of anti-Mormon sentiment in the valley. "The 'reform' challenge was met with excommunications, and when the leaders . . . found themselves outside the Church, they formed temporary alliance with their Gentile friends to organize the Liberal party in February of 1870." Another common endeavor for these leaders in the years following was support of the Episcopal mission schools. Their names are prominent in school registers both as parents of enrolled studentsand as members of the schools' board of directors. While they strengthened the schools by providing some local financial backing, they were also influential in developing the educational objectives of Bishop Tuttle for the schools.

In the late nineteenth century there were several types of private day schools in the eastern states: independent academies run by boards of trustees, church schools, and privately owned schools operated by individuals. Preparatory schools of each type provided a basic education for boys and girls under the age of ten or twelve. In addition, some "grammar" schools prepared boys with a solid foundation in Latin, Greek, and higher mathematics in order to enable them to pass the college entrance examinations of that time. Since college education for women was rare, most schools for older girls prepared them for their place in society, trained them in the arts, or prepared them to become teachers of young children or girls. Before 1871 the teachers at St. Mark's School tried to provide all these kinds of education in one building. As the enrollment grew, the task became more complex. The school needed to be divided, yet hundreds of forty-dollar scholarships were given every year to provide an advanced education for both boys and girls in the territory. In addition, there was a great need to train young men and women as teachers.

The solution to the problem was a pragmatic one. Bishop Tuttle reported to the Board of Missions in 1871 that Haskins had established St. Mark's School for Girls: "Not content with his 'St. Mark's Grammar School,' he opens this year a new school for girls only. . . . The school for girls will be held in the basement of our new' St. Mark's Church." In actuality, the school was not for girls only. It was designed "to meet the special educational needs of girls, although boys under 10 years of age were received and prepared for entrance into ... St. Mark's Grammar School." Because of the similarity of the two names, the new endeavor was often called simply the Basement School. "This was entirely a selfsupporting school," said Bishop Tuttle, referring to the fact that no scholarship students were enrolled in it and that it received no support from the Episcopal mission organizations in the East. The members of the parish did much to keep the school self-supporting. In addition to their regular contributions to the parish, they paid tuition that was slightly higher than that charged by St. Mark's Grammar School. Charlotte E. Hayden was employed as teacher and manager of the school, but she was assisted by ladies of the parish as well as by the clergy of the cathedral. "Many of the first students were boarded with nearby Episcopal families further illustrating parish support." One who might have given this kind of support was Haskins himself. At about this time, he married, and in 1871 he bought the George D. Watt house from banker Warren Hussey.

In 1873 St. Mark's Grammar School moved into its own building at 141 East First South. Built at a cost of $20,000, and reputed to be the finest of its kind in the territory, it was described as "a large and commodious structure, containing a large chapel, and a sufficient number of classrooms." During the school year of 1876-77, the school had a total attendance of 463 students. The Primary Department had six grades, and the Intermediate Department two. The school also included a Grammar Department divided in the manner of eastern preparatory schools into four "forms" and a Classical Department. It also boasted of "a Philosophical Apparatus . . . added to the school at a cost of nearly $500" and a library containing "at present some 650 volumes." The school year began on August 20 and ended with "General Exercises" on June 14 after two full days of examinations. Parents received monthly reports of students' scholarship and conduct and were informed that "a critical and interested examination of these documents cannot fail to stimulate the exertions of the pupil, and enlarge the idea of the value of his work."

St. Mark's School for Girls also sent written monthly reports to parents. Its students were divided into three classes or departments. Students in the Primary Department received lessons in writing, mental arithmetic, reading, oral instruction, geography, physical exercises, spelling, drawing, and vocal music. These subjects were also taught in the Intermediate Department, as were United States history, composition, written arithmetic, recitations, and grammar. The course of study in the Grammar Department included: high school arithmetic, rhetoric, grammar and analysis, natural philosophy, Latin, geometry, universal history, physical geography, algebra, English literature, astronomy, and physiology. The older girls probably took some of these courses at St. Mark's Grammar School. At the Basement School they received supplemental training in religion, dance, art, music, and domestic science. Since "the successful mining men and ranchers of this area wanted their daughters to develop into young ladies," the school tried to offer the girls an education similar to that provided in the East by ladies' seminaries. Its purpose was "to train healthy, companionable, and self-reliant Christian women."

As the teaching staff grew and Bishop Tuttle was able to expand the facilities, this effort developed into an institution better qualified to fill the need. The lot on "A" street and First Avenue with an adobe house was purchased . . . with funds provided by the family of Benjamin Rowland, in whose honor the name of the school was changed to Rowland Hall.

THE SCHOOL ON THE HILL

Historical material concerning the founding of Rowland Hall is sketchy, inconsistent, or inaccurate. Those most concerned with the early establishment of the school left either no records at all or only brief recollections made many years later. The Utah Gazetteer and Directory for 1884 states that Rowland Hall began in 1880, and the school has traditionally accepted that date as the year of its establishment. However, the earliest Rowland Hall catalogues are those inscribed "Second Year," printed in 1882, and "Third Year, 1883-84," printed in 1883. A small circular announces that "Rowland Hall ... A HOME SCHOOL AND SEMINARY For Young Ladies OPENS Monday, August 29th, 1881."

All other primary sources confirm this date as the formal beginning of the school in its present location. There is evidence, however, to support the assertion that the actual founding of the school preceded its opening.

Haskins bought the property the same year that St. Mark's School for Girls opened. It was a thirteen-room adobe farmhouse built between 1855 and 1860 by George Darling Watt, "the first person baptized into the Mormon church in Great Britain, private secretary to Brigham Young, publisher of the Journal of Discourses and a leading proponent of the Deseret Alphabet." The property included only a few acres of the twenty-acre productive farm on which Watt had raised choice fruits and produce as well as silkworms that fed on the leaves of the mulberry trees he planted in 1855. It did, however, include part of his apple orchard and a healthy meadow of lucerne in addition to those nut and mulberry trees that grew close to the house.

When Haskins resigned in 1872 the house was deeded to Thomas Wilson, a parishoner of St. Mark's Cathedral. Since many of the older students who attended St. Mark's School for Girls in its early years boarded with clergy or parishioners, it is possible that the Watt-Haskins house was "a home away from home" for some young women before it became Rowland Hall. It is also likely that the house was purchased to provide either a boarding department or a more suitable location for the Basement School which had outgrown its quarters. Because of the confusion between it and St. Mark's Grammar School, it probably needed a new name as well as a new location. As usual, the funds to build or purchase a new building were lacking. It was the Reverend Reynold Marvin Kirby who finally effected the transfer of the Watt-Haskins house to Bishop Tuttle for the new site of the girls' school.

Kirby came to Salt Lake City from Albion, New York, in the spring of 1871, a year and a half after the death of his young wife, Virginia, who was the daughter of Benjamin Rowland, a wealthy Philadelphia industrialist. Kirby helped to establish St. Mark's Hospital and served as its first superintendent. He was also vice-president of the board of directors of St. Mark's Grammar School where he taught higher mathematics. On January 9, 1873, he married Jane (Jennie) McLaren, the daughter of a New York clergyman. Their four children were all born in Salt Lake City. The youngest girl, born on June 21, 1880, was named after his first wife, Virginia Rowland, and her mother, Virginia Lafayette Rowland. At about this time, Mrs. Rowland and her daughter Josephine visited the Kirby family and became interested in the work of the Episcopal missionaries in Salt Lake City. In memory of her late husband, Mrs. Rowland donated $5,000 of the $8,000 needed to purchase the Watt-Haskins house. Kirby and Bishop Tuttle raised more than $2,000, but the balance, together with the cost of refurbishing the house, left a standing debt of $2,000 which Bishop Tuttle reported to the Board of Missions a month before the school opened. In an optimistic tone, he added:

So it comes to pass that I am preparing for a movement forward. On August 29th "Rowland Hall" is to be opened, a Boarding School for Girls in Salt Lake City. And may the Lord prosper this our new undertaking!

Rowland Hall opened with one boarder and two teachers. Most of the high school girls enrolled in the regular course were day students who came from St. Mark's School for Girls and the Grammar School. The Preparatory and Primary departments of Rowland Hall were still held in the basement of St. Mark's Cathedral under the supervision of Charlotte E. Hayden. Farnetta Alexander, the school's first boarder, was enrolled in Miss Hayden's Preparatory Department and probably walked to and from the cathedral during her first year of residence. The new principal, Lucia Marsh of Philadelphia, and science teacher Isabella E. Douglass both lived at the Hall. Miss Douglass later recalled:

In 1880 I was teaching in Wolf Hall, Denver, Col. and became acquainted with Miss Lucia Mason Marsh and grew very much attached to her, so when Bp. Tuttle offered her the Principalship of Rowland Hall, I felt I would like to go too. And after some correspondence with Bishop Tuttle it was arranged. In August 1881 I met Miss Marsh in Chicago and went out to Salt Lake. We were met on our arrival at the Station by Rev. George Miller who told us that Rowland Hall was not quite ready for us and took us to Bishop Tuttle's for a week. The next morning we were taken up to the Hall and chose our rooms, etc. and the Bishop told us of his designs for the school, and said we have corraled only one boarder as yet but I am corresponding with several parents and think we shall soon have several, and he thought it best to begin with this one, Nettie Alexander of Boseman, Montana, and a number of day pupils who had been attending school in the basement of St. Mark's under Miss Semons, and a nicer better lot of girls I never met anywhere. ... By Christmas we had several boarders. . . . We opened school with some pupil teachers but they soon dropped out and then the Bishop secured Miss Emma Chandler and also Miss Abby Marsh as Art Teacher. . . . Miss Lucia Marsh was much loved and was eminently fitted for her position but unfortunately her health failed and she was obliged to go to California, where she died in December, 1887.

Daisy M. Senter was the school's first graduate in 1882. The ceremony took place in St. Mark's Cathedral where she was escorted to her place by Gen. Macdowell McCook. Theresa Godbe, daughter of the leader of the Godbeite Movement, graduated in 1883 and became a public schoolteacher. Many years later she recalled the early days of Rowland Hall:

There was one boarder and thirteen girls, the original thirteen, who came from St. Mark's School for Girls held in the crypt of the cathedral, and a few others. But the school grew rapidly. Prof. Radcliffe taught the piano, Miss Fidelia Hamilton, vocal music and Madame Fitzgerald, a Parisian married to an Irishman, French. The building was an old dwelling house, and consisted of drawing room, library, two school rooms, dining room, kitchen, and sleeping rooms up stairs. The grounds were beautiful in the natural state, full of grand old trees. We had swings, croquet and a small ball ground.

Another student recalled that all the rooms on the lower floor were used for classrooms during the day, and after lessons were used by the family. An early essay on the history of the school reports:

The grounds, up to a few feet from the entrance, were covered with a fine healthy growth of alfalfa which furnished nourishment for the Bishop's and Chaplain's cows and for various stray animals of the neighborhood. Instead of tennis and basketball the girls used to take their exercise in chasing away the alien herd, so that the Bishop's cow might not lack its daily rations.

Kirby served as the school's chaplain for only a few months. In August 1882 Bishop Tuttle reported his transfer to the Diocese of Albany. The bishop also told the Board of Missions of the growth of Rowland Hall in its first year and of the support he had received from ladies in the East. One woman in Philadelphia and another in Boston had each sent him $1,000 for the school. Donations also came from others:

In founding a library for the Hall, the booksellers have generously helped me. M. W. Appleton of N. Y. gave precious personal attention to the selection of good books; and his firm, and Harper Brothers, and Routledge & Son, and Scribner's Sons and Lippincott & Co., sent me $550 worth of books, for the nucleus of an excellent library.

Last year we began with one boarding pupil in Rowland Hall, and ended with nine. This year seventeen have already applied for entrance, and I fear embarrassment in providing room for the steady inflow.

The following year the bishop reported even more generous donations:

Our boarding school for girls, Rowland Hall, though only in its second year, awakens great hopes for its future. Seventeen boarders and thirty day students were in it last year.

The late Mrs. J. McGraw Fiske of Ithaca, N. Y. left in her will the sum of $10,000 for our Mission. I have devoted it to the help of Rowland Hall. The one-half is invested at eight per cent per annum as an endowment for the "McGraw Fiske Scholarship"; the beneficiary of the same to be always the daughter of a clergyman attending the Hall. The other half I have also invested, retaining it for the purpose of enlarging and improving the Hall, the need for which will soon press.

Mrs. V. L. Rowland, of Philadelphia, the founder of the Hall, has sent me $500 to be expended for the nucleus of a library, to be called the "Virginia Rowland Kirby Library." By this and such like gifts, ... the library, as a most important appliance of the school, will grow with its growth and strengthen with its strength.

Three years later, Tuttle left Salt Lake City to become the bishop of Missouri. In October 1886 at the General Convention in Chicago the Reverend R. M. Kirby was elected his successor. Unfortunately, his wife, Jennie, had died the preceding April, leaving him with four small children to raise, so he declined the position. "The Right Reverend Abiel Leonard was finally prevailed upon to accept the post, and was consecrated in Saint Louis, January 25, 1888."" He arrived in Salt Lake City the following month and immediately took an active interest in the development of Rowland Hall.

In its early years the school was, like many female seminaries, primarily a finishing school dedicated to the "physical, intellectual and moral training" of girls in order that they might become "not merely accomplished, but sensible, practical, and earnest minded women." Those girls who wished to prepare themselves for one of the few occupations open to women were more likely to attend a school like St. Mark's, which was more academically oriented. However, by the time Utah achieved statehood, St. Mark's School had closed to support "the betterment of the public schools." Rowland Hall remained open, and Bishop Leonard, together with a new principal, Clara Colburne, and a new staff hired in 1894, strived to model the school after the best seminaries in the East which "offered women an opportunity to study academic subjects to an advanced standard."

The catalogs do indeed list an impressive array of academic and cultural subjects, but the reality of school life before the turn of the century is better revealed in the Mission Message, a short-lived publication containing articles and news items from each of the Episcopal schools in the Missionary District of Nevada and Utah:

A typewriting machine . . . [has been moved] into the Hall, and eight of the young ladies are learning the beautiful and accuracy-teaching art.

A girl who throws her dress or bonnet down on a chair will make a poor wife in nine cases out of ten. If the world could see how a girl keeps her dressing room, some unhappy marriages would be saved.

April 1888

Every Thursday afternoon, Miss Almy conducts a class at Rowland Hall, and instructs the maidens in the Delsarte system of calisthenics and the graceful art of Terpsichore.

November 1888

The scientific department. . . has been anticipating its work in chemistry by sending for a quantity of apparatus, consisting of test tubes and racks, Wolff bottles, generating flasks, beakers, candle bombs, etc., but the most interesting of all is that for the separating of water into its constituent elements by the process of electrolysis.

Saturday evening, the 12th, the girls at Rowland Hall had a fancy dress party ... an hour of rare fun and enjoyment which made the young hearts beat with a thrill of cheer, no matter how far down they might have been in the valley of discouragement at some interminable algebra examples or translation.

January 1889

Some beautiful work in the angular handwriting has been done during this year, under both Miss Haight and Miss Hayden. The angular hand seems to have come to stay, and is taught in all female schools of reputation. No lady of the present day can afford to write in the old-fashioned round hand.

May 1889

Further insight into life at Rowland Hall at the turn of the century is found in the recollection of Martha Humphrey, science teacher and assistant to Miss Colburne:

It was September 1895 that I arrived in Salt Lake City. . . . The enrollment was not large, and the physical set-up was quite limited, but the spirit of the school was buoyant. . . .

The atmosphere of the boarding department was quite homelike, and when the regulation boarding school pranks had to be carried out, such as midnight feasts, my room was commandeered as the half partitions in the dormitories were wholly unsuitable.

Gradually the fresh decorations in the living rooms and bed rooms, and finally, the then new school building and chapel made for more gracious living.

The tennis court was built, and in constant use during recreation.

We also worked hard to get together old examination papers and other pertinent material to prove to Smith and other colleges that we were worthy to be admitted to their ivied halls without examinations.

As I remember, we had a high scholastic standard in the three R's and allied subjects and also had time for music, art, . . . and even drama.

By 1901 Bishop Leonard had spent more than $20,000 in enlarging the school to accommodate 50 boarders and nearly 150 day students, but he still dreamed of a new classroom building that would contain science laboratories, several music and art studios, an assembly hall, a gymnasium, and a chapel. Soon after the turn of the century the school received a legacy of $33,000 from the estate of Pittsburgh industrialist Felix R. Brunot, and the bishop's dream seemed destined to become a reality. He hired an architect and proceeded with plans.

Leonard died before his plans could be carried out, and the work of enlarging the school was left to his young successor, Franklin Spencer Spalding. The building that was finally constructed in 1906 was designed by Theodore Davis Beale to blend with and echo the style of the original Watt-Haskins house. The plans also called for the erection of a monastic style chapel on the second floor of a structure connecting the new school building with the old farmhouse. This was completed in 1910 with funds granted by Caroline R. Lippincott in memory of her mother, Virginia Lafayette Rowland.

Life at Rowland Hall in the first few decades of the twentieth century was similar in many respects to what it had been before the turn of the century. Styles changed, but people did not. Boarders envied the relative freedom of the day students, but enjoyed the camaraderie of illicit late-night "gab" sessions and pajama parties. The faculty held out staunchly against the wearing of make-up and silk stockings and kept watchful eyes on those who insisted on breaking the rules of what one teacher called "their Adamless Eden." The traditional Candle and Carol Service at Christmas and the dance festival in May were important events in the school year, as were the opening tea, the bazaar, the Halloween skits, the senior play, the Junior-Senior Prom, and the beautiful graduation ceremony at the cathedral. Despite these traditions, there were significant changes that affected school life.

School yearbooks emphasize the growing importance of athletics in the twenties and thirties. The school had an Athletic Association, and girls worked diligently to fulfill the requirements it set for the awarding of the coveted R and H. Basketball seemed to be the most popular sport. Every class had a team, as did the faculty, and competition for the allschool tournament championship was keen. The girls ice-skated and skied in the winter. In the spring and fall they participated in field hockey, track events, fist ball, baseball, and tennis. They also went hiking and horseback riding. The regular physical education class requirements included gymnasium practice, swimming, folk and aesthetic dancing, marching, and setting-up drills. The athletic program had changed considerably from the days when the girls played croquet on the lawn and took healthful walks around the school grounds for exercise.

Although boarders were still not allowed off the campus without a chaperone, they could visit day students on weekends and attend one movie a week in the company of other boarders. However, the most significant change of all was in the educational philosophy of the school. More and more women were encouraged to enter college after completing high school, and private girls' schools throughout the country became preparatory schools. According to one educator, "Those who tried to run nineteenth century finishing schools in the twentieth century failed." High schools, both public and private, espoused the dual purpose of preparing students for "college and life thereafter."

The principal was responsible for the course of study, which often reflected her educational philosophy as well as college admission requirements. In 1921 Alice B. MacDonald wrote:

Rowland Hall is what is called an accredited school; that is, the large colleges of the country, both in the East and in the West, accept our credits and recommendations for admission of our candidates. . . .

. . . We agree that the college course is not the best course for all girls. . . . The school is therefore offering, in addition to the college or classical course, two others: one including two years of Latin and French, and other without Latin. In both courses a certain number of electives are allowed.

Six years later Miss MacDonald's attitude had changed somewhat.

There is a strong feeling, based on experience, that high school courses should not be too elastic and that they should be so arranged and planned as to give a strong foundation in what are called the humanities. Rowland Hall, accordingly, expects every pupil to take at least two years of Latin, including Caesar; and three years of French, or four years without Latin; two or three years of Mathematics; four years of English, as much History as the program will allow, and one science. Furthermore, if girls expect to enter College, the above are the required courses.

Colleges admitting students only by College Board Examinations require three or four years of Latin, as the case may be.

Rowland Hall encouraged its college-bound seniors to take the College Board examinations long before this practice became common in Utah's public high schools. In 1928 the new principal, Callie B. Gaines, explained, "Since 1918 Smith, Wellesley, Vassar, and Mt. Holyoke have admitted no students by certificate. All . . . are required to take the College Board examinations. . . ." This requirement was instituted by colleges in order to enable them to evaluate candidates from public and small private schools on an equal basis with those from the more prestigious preparatory schools. Therefore, schools like Rowland Hall encouraged or required their students to take the examinations. Although teachers did not teach for these tests, they did tend to emphasize those academic skills that would better prepare their students for them. In the following decades this had a narrowing effect on the curriculum of most private schools, and Rowland Hall was no exception. Many students found their studies demanding and sometimes dull, but most graduates praised the school for the excellent college preparation they received.

During the depression the school suffered severe financial difficulties. The Episcopal Missionary District could no longer support the school, which was again heavily in debt. Students did not have the money for tuition and scholarship funds were depleted. "Bishop Moulton was in difficult financial troubles in his role as District Administrator and was sorely pressed to continue the operations of Rowland Hall, St. Mark's Hospital and other problem areas of the district." The situation seemed hopeless.

In 1933 the Episcopal National Council recommended closing Rowland Hall for lack of support and finances, and the school was kept open only through the heroic efforts of local patrons and alumni. The ingenious argument made to the National Council was that if the school did close it would lose its tax exempt status, and the resulting taxes would compound the deficit.

As a result, the school was incorporated as an independent, nonprofit institution with a self-perpetuating board of trustees. The years that followed were difficult for the administration and the trustees. The enrollment was smaller than it had been in early years; however, under the determined leadership of Fanny B. Jones the school maintained its traditional ties with the Episcopal church and its reputation for academic excellence.

COEDUCATION AND NEW TRADITIONS

Despite the Great Depression, World War II, and the problem of fluctuating hemlines, Rowland Hall upheld its established traditions and standards. In 1948 the new headmistress, Elizabeth T. Corr, endeavored to prepare young women "for college and for life" in much the same way that her predecessors had done twenty-five years earlier. Life, however, was becoming more complex. Sputnik streaked across the sky in 1957 and marked the beginning of a new educational era for both public and private schools. In the meantime, another event that marked the beginning of a new era for Rowland Hall caused more immediate concern. A boys' school was established on the adjoining property.

In response to the need expressed by parents for a college preparatory school for boys, Bishop Richard S. Watson reestablished St. Mark's School in 1956. The bishop's residence, the Rawlins house at 231 First Avenue, and the Caine house at 67 B Street which had previously been used by Rowland Hall were remodeled slightly to house the new school. Robert Bolbach of Toledo, Ohio, was chosen headmaster.

In three years the enrollment increased from 28 to 88. In 1956-57 grades 7, 8, and 9 were taught. Thereafter, a grade was added each year until a full secondary school program was established by September 1959. The academic program, geared to the needs of college-bound boys, was rigorous. The athletic program emphasized sports the boys could continue as adults, such as tennis, golf, swimming, and skiing, although the soccer and basketball teams did compete with those of other high schools.

By 1961, with enrollment at 110, Bolbach, the bishop, and members of the board of trustees began to consider moving the school to a new location. However, the cost of securing an adequate facility and the expense of staffing and maintaining two schools in separate locations proved to be prohibitive. The merger of St. Mark's School with Rowland Hall was a more feasible alternative and followed a national trend among private schools. In 1964 the fence separating the two institutions was removed, and Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School was established.

Mrs. Corr retired in 1966 after coordinating the merger of the two schools and supervising the staff's adjustment to coeducation. The transition was perhaps more difficult for the students than for the faculty. Although the new school emblem was successfully designed to include both the Rowland Hall cross and motto and the St. Mark's winged lion, combining other traditions and practices of school life proved more difficult. At first the students felt awkward in class and tended to segregate themselves on opposite sides of the classroom. For several years the boys and girls insisted on retaining their traditional activities such as the senior boys' river trip and the senior girls' trip to San Francisco. Under the guidance of its present headmaster, William M. Purdy, who was appointed in 1969, the school became one in spirit, redefining its academic objectives and establishing new traditions while retaining the best of the old.

Conditions in the 1970s brought about further change. Increased enrollment necessitated the construction of a new upper school building, designed to echo in modern form the original buildings. Economic and other reasons forced the school to close its boarding facilities in 1976, thus ending a ninety-six-year tradition. Students from other countries and states now live in the Salt Lake City area with families who supply them with room and board as part of a family live-in program.

The school presently enrolls approximately 300 students in prekindergarten through grade 12. The curriculum at all levels is demanding yet flexible enough to meet individual needs. The program of studies in the upper school is considerably broader than it was twenty-five years ago. Although it is still primarily a college preparatory program, it includes a variety of electives in addition to those courses required for graduation. Special features include a coordinated early childhood and extended care program; a lower school French program; an interim program in which students study one subject, frequently off campus, and take trips to major cities or western areas of historic and scientific interest; and a winter sports program.

Although it has redefined its educational programs and objectives over the years to meet changing realities and needs, the school still strives to foster intellectual excellence, individual creativity, and spiritual growth. With an educational heritage as rich and varied as that of Utah itself, Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School continues to provide a viable alternative to public education in Salt Lake City.

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