Middle School building turns 60

• LEft A drone shot of the Middle School and its students in October 2017.

Middle School building dates back 60 years

BY jANET morAN Director of Archives

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In 1961, Wilbraham Academy was well underway with its second Annual Fund drive. Alumni, parents and others were concerned with Wilbraham’s progress with the plan to improve the facilities on campus. At the time, improvements to the Arts and Athletic Center were proposed.

It was at this point that Mrs. Clayton P. Chamberlin made known her interest in giving the school a fitting memorial to her husband, a former secretary and member of the Academy’s Board of Trustees and a graduate from the Class of 1887 Wesleyan.

Mr. Chamberlin, publisher of the Hartford (Connecticut) Times, had been a lifelong lover of music and art, and so it was a logical development that the Trustees should expand their original plans and combine that with the Chamberlins’ very generous gift to the Academy. Plans were drawn up and work quickly began in the summer of 1962.

The Chamberlin Memorial Arts Center, which was built on the site of the current Middle School, was a one-story building of modified Georgian design. It was designed to have an art room, a large music room, five smaller practice rooms and a rotunda area in which concerts could be played and objects of art displayed.

More than 1,000 alumni and friends attended the Academy’s dedication during Founders Weekend in October 1962. The dedicatory exercises were held in the Alumni Memorial Chapel.

Leroy Temple 1919W, president of the Board of Trustees, Francis Cowdrey, a Trustee and Chairman of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, and Assistant Head of School Gilder Jackson, filling in for W. Gray Mattern Jr., addressed the student body and visitors. The audience then adjourned to the front of the Chamberlin Building to hear a dedicatory prayer by Chaplin Sumner J. Brown and to inspect the new facility.

The Arts facility was a welcome addition, but it wasn’t long before the Academy had more needs and growing pains. This included a time from 1986 to 1993 when the building was home to the Academy Hill School for gifted elementary school children.

The building later stood empty for a few years, all while the Middle School had been steadily growing in numbers. The Middle School was conducted mostly where our Campus Center is today, beneath Lak Dining Hall. As part of a Strategic Plan, it was time to create a proper space for their needs.

There was also a big need to update our science program, which was housed in Binney Hall. Dedicated in 1854 as a state-of-theart science building of its time, Binney was outdated by the late 1960s and the need for a new science building was evident.

Under the tutelage of Mattern, it was decided that a thoroughly modern science building was a must to stay competitive in a fast-changing world. Mattern Science Center was completed in 1972.

A few years later, Chamberlin Arts and Music Center was expanded to create and make room for the Blake Middle School. A generous donation from Friendly’s Ice Cream Co-Founder S. Prestley Blake and his wife, Helen Davis Blake, made it possible; and its dedication took place on Oct. 4, 1997.

With this change, Binney Hall became the school’s art center and gallery as it is today.

Archives Notes

Clayton P. Chamberlin, who died in 1949, had been a member of the Board since 1920 and for a large part of that time had served as secretary to the board.

A quote after his death states “Integrity of character was one of his outstanding qualities. Mr. Chamberlin had the confidence and respect of all who knew him, as well as the high regard of his friends and family for his social and cultural qualities.”

In addition to the Blakes’ gift to the school, Robert and Marjorie Griffin dedicated a multipurpose room in honor of their son, former Board Chair William A. Griffin ’68W, and Mark R. Shenkman ’61M, who has named the distinctive rotunda area in honor of his parents George and Florence Shenkman.

Binney Hall is named after one of the school’s first Trustees and president of the Board from 1824 to 1830 Colonel Amos Binney. Colonel Binney was also instrumental in moving Wesleyan Academy from Newmarket, New Hampshire, to Wilbraham, Massachusetts in 1824.

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1 Chamberlin Memorial Arts Center Dedication ceremony, 1962. 2 Building supporters gather at the construction sign. 3 A backside view across Crystal Pond. 4 Start of expansion to the Middle School in the mid-1990s. 5 In progress, 1962. 6 From high above Rich Hall, a view of the Middle School and the Rodney and Shirley LaBrecque House dormitory (left) in 2017.

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