Longmeadow Family and Day School for Girls

Have you ever wanted to have automatic admission to an excellent college?

If so, then you might have enrolled at the Longmeadow Family and Day School for Girls.

In 1886, a four year college preparatory school for girls was proposed to open in Longmeadow. While not exclusively connected to Wellesley College, an official board of visitors from the Wellesley faculty would supervise instruction. Pupils completing the course would be received at Wellesley College without further examination. Mrs. D. T. Smith of Longmeadow and Miss Ella F. Prout (a Wellesley graduate) would serve as associate principals.

The school was to be housed at the home of Mrs. D. T. Smith (796 Longmeadow St.), which was lauded as “pleasant, commodious and well arranged, thoroughly heated and ventilated and the drainage is perfect.” Girls would be welcomed into the family of the principal and would be expected to fit within the regulations of the family “to promote mutual courtesy and self-respect, and to insure habits of self-control and thoughtfulness for others.”

The curriculum included algebra, geometry, English, geography, history, Latin, Greek, French, and German. The cost for a 36-week school year (tuition, board, room, and utilities) was $400. Instruction in music, painting, and elocution were available, but not included in the basic cost. There was a $20 annual charge to use the piano. This school appears to be modeled on Dana Hall School, which is located in Wellesley, MA. Dana Hall School was founded in 1881 to provide young women with the rigorous mental training that had long been available to men. Early students of Dana Hall School were guaranteed admission to Wellesley College without further examination if they completed the course of study. Why would Wellesley College be interested in establishing a college preparatory school in Longmeadow? Because Longmeadow families believed that educating their daughters was important. Since 1841, young women from Longmeadow had headed up the valley to South Hadley to be educated at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Twenty-eight young women from Longmeadow and East Longmeadow, many with the last names of Bliss, Colton, Burbank, White, Pratt, Goldthwait, and Hooker, attended the school in the 1800s. While some married shortly after graduation, most shared their learning by teaching in schools throughout the country. Annie Bradford Coomes was the first Longmeadow young woman to attend Wellesley College. Perhaps she helped develop the Longmeadow Family and Day School for Girls by connecting her friend, Mrs. D. T. Smith, and her classmate, Ella F. Prout, with the Wellesley College faculty. Dana Hall School is still flourishing in Wellesley, MA, but we can find no record that the Longmeadow Family and Day School for Girls ever had any students. When it was time to go to college, Grace T. Smith, daughter of Mrs. D. T. Smith, continued the town tradition and attended school at Mount Holyoke College.

Sources:

Springfield Republican May 7, 1886

Wellesley College Bulletin, Wellesley College Record 1875-1912

Dana Hall School website

Catalogue of the Memorandum Society, of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, for Thirty Years, Ending 1867

Catalogue of the Memorandum Society, of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, for Five Years 1867-1872

General Catalogue, Mount Holyoke Seminary 1837-1887

General Catalogue of Mount Holyoke College, 1837-1924

Longmeadow Historical Society archives

Contributed by Elizabeth Hoff, Board Member, Longmeadow Historical Society

Originally published June 4, 2020

Braided Straw Hat

In the photo below Dennis Picard is holding an example of a seven strand straw plait (flat braid), known as Dunstable work, after the town in England where it was said to be first made and made in large quantities. The plait was sewn into hats both for women and men.

Most of the straw hats made in our area were made for domestic use – but not for use in our local area. They were made through a cottage industry and were shipped out of New England mainly for use on plantations in the southern United States (sometimes in the Caribbean).

It was a trade carried out by women in their homes, both wives and daughters. A woman, once skilled, could make as much as - and sometimes many times more than - a man working outside the home or farming. Foxborough, MA was known as “the straw hat capital of the world.” In 1748 straw plaiting was taught in English almshouses. In the early 1800s a straw splitter was invented making the preparation of the straw simpler.

Contributed by Dennis Picard, Local Historian

Originally published May 28, 2020

Longmeadow Country Day School for Younger Boys

I. Mansur Beard, a Harvard graduate, believed that boys should be taught by men (not women) in classes of 15 students or less in order to provide optimum individual contact between children and teachers. Concerned about overcrowded classes and increasingly feminized public education, Mr. Beard started the Longmeadow Country Day School for Younger Boys in September 1923.

First Church leased the house at 30 Williams Street to the school as well as its chapel (altered so that it could be used as a gymnasium). In 1924, the school added a dormitory to its campus – the Mason House on Colton Place. Graduation ceremonies and theatrical performances were held at the nearby Longmeadow Community House. All of the instructors at the Longmeadow Country Day School were male.

The school was open to boys aged 14 and under. While most of the students came from the greater Springfield area, some came from farther afield, including Lowell, MA, Farmington, CT, and even Cuba. Athletics was an important part of the education. Football, baseball, and the “manly art of self-defense” (boxing) were included in the curriculum along with choral singing, plays, and crafts such as carpentry.

In 1929, the school moved to 1087 Longmeadow Street (the house in the above photo). The barn, which still stands behind the house, was adapted to serve as the school gymnasium. Hoping to accommodate more students, it leased the neighboring Alvah Colton property (1077 Longmeadow Street) in 1930. However, the economic realities of the Great Depression took over and, in January 1931, the facilities in Longmeadow closed and the students transferred to the Winchester Junior Academy in Wilbraham. Winchester staff highly praised the education that the Longmeadow faculty had provided to the boys.

Sources: Longmeadow Historical Society archives Springfield Republican June 10, 1923; July 21, 1923; Aug. 15, 1924; Sept. 18, 1924; Oct. 4, 1925; June 15, 1928; July 8, 1930; June 10, 1931

Contributed by Elizabeth Hoff, Board Member, Longmeadow Historical Society

Originally published May 21, 2020