Page 13 - 1983 Wardlaw Hartridge

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large measure of success almost impossible.”
In 1912 the junior department moved to West 7th Street,
leaving the upper school far quieter at recess.
Public speaking was emphasized at all levels.
Leal continually pointed to the small size of the classes,
adding "Unless there be some hopeless weakness on the pupil's part, he must progress swiftly and successfully.”
Although college entrance was a major aim. "The broa­ dest education without nobility of character is a veneer and sham, in the contests of life only the worthy should win," Leal said.
Then, as now. school lunches were a problem. In 1898 Leal said hot lunches were offered but then "suspended because of the small number who were interested. The price was too low to be remunerative.”
In 1900 Leal added a course in mechanical drawing as "a technical course not intended for college boys, nor for those who may be interested in drawing merely as an ac­ complishment. but for those who propose to make it a step­ ping-stone to their life work."
There was still no gymnasium at the school. Military drill helped gain grace and dignity of manner, erect carriage and instant obedience to constituted authority.” An athletic association fielded teams in hockey, football and baseball.
For almost all of the early years, graduation ceremonies took place at the school. In 1907. however, on the school's 25th anniversary, commencement was held at The Casino.
This was a special night, for an alumni association was formed and graduates presented Mr. Leal with a purse con­ taining $500 in gold. The Yale Cup went to Otis Averill for attaining the highest average in athletics and scholarship.
John Leal operated his School for Boys for 34 years. In that time 1000 boys attended Leal’s and 350 went on to institutions of higher learning, usually the best in the coi- try.
Major Miller, the owner of the school building, leased it to Miss Caroline Fitz Randolph and Miss Grac Webster Cooley, who continued the school in the fall, assisted by M iss Abby Mellick in the primary department and a Miss Mechado in the kindergarten.
M iss Randolph and M iss Cooley established a thoroughly progressive school, aimed toward the full development of all the powers of the child — physical and moral as well as mental.
The course of study was graded and took the child from kindergarten through preparation for college. For those not interested in college, a course complete in itself was of­ fered, for which a diploma was given.
In the 1902 Randolph Cooley Collegiate Brochure 19 teach­ ers were listed for a student body of approximately 130. Of this latter number. 45 to 50 were boys in the kindergarten and Primary departments.
The Randolph Cooley School opened for its fall term Mon­ day evening. September 22. 1902. The number of pupils en­ rolled was so large that in some grades the limit had been reached, although new names were added. Miss Randolph also announced to the parents and visitors thatadditional faculty had been added.
Miss Randolph had the sympathy of her patrons when she announced the withdrawal of Miss Cooley, whose coopera­ tion had been invaluable during the school's early years.
On Tuesday, November II. 1902. Miss Grace Webster Coo­ ley was married to Captain Mason Matthews Patrick, a member of the Engineer Corps of the United States Army, with the accesories of a military weeding. It was performed by Rev. James M. Taylor, president of Vassar College, where the bride was graduated in 1894. The couple resided in Washington, D.C.
In 1902. Miss Emelyn Battersby Hartridge, principal of the Hartridge School in Savannah. Georgia, was at Johns Hop­ kins Hospital "haveing.” as she put it, "typhoid fever." While there, she heard about a small private school in Plain- field, New Jersey, from a doctor who wanted her to buy it so that he could marry the principal, Miss Caroline Fitz Ran­ dolph.
On Friday. June 5. 1903, The Randolph-Cooley Collegiate School — under the leadership of Miss Carolyn Fitz Ran­ dolph — was ended.
So many things go into the history of a school.
Helen Joy Rushmore, H.S. ’09. recently told Reenie Fargo, H.S. ’60. that in the 1900-1910era the Hartridge student body would be assembled in the morning, roll call taken, absences noted, and then in would stride Miss Hartridge to get the day started. Her opening words were:
"Good morning, girls.”
And. of course, the dutiful reply would be=
"Good morning. Miss Hartridge.”
Except that one small group of less than reverent upper-
class types found, to their considerable delight, that they could return her greetings strongly and with great relish without fear of being detected, by saying:
"Good Morning. Sausagel"
Phoebe MacBeth remembers the young teacher who took the first grade to call on Miss Hartridge. The girls picked flowers from the school garden to take to her. They never did this again.
Adele DeLeeuw. H.S. ‘18, writes of "a full-bodied woman with heavy-lidded eyes that never missed a trick” who
"often took charge of classes herself. She had the uncanny ability of good teachers to be able to keep her head down, writing letters, for instance, while she saw everything that was going on — the girls surreptitiously getting chocolates out of their desks, passing notes and redoing their hair.”
She had high standards of deportment and learning and it was her pride that most of her girls went on to college and did extremely well there. If you decided on Vassar — her own alma mater — you were in the top echelon. She man­ aged to tolerate Smith. Bryn Mawr, Holyoke and Wellesley."
Miss Emelyn Battersby Hartridge purchased the good-will of the Randolph-Cooley Collegiate School, located at 303 East 7th Street, Plainfield, the corner of Roosevelt Avenue, in 1903.
Within a year she had changed the name to The Hartridge School and begun to expand from the nursery school through freshman year in high school institution she ac­ quired.
She also added a boarding division and rented 107 West 7th Street as a residence, then rented the Casino across the street, a building perhaps most famous for the bowling alleys in the basement. Later it became the Park Hotel Annex, which burned November 25. 1974.
At first students at the Hartridge School were shocked at being exposed to as "vulgar" a sport as bowling, but they quickly came to enjoy this, along with fencing, croquet and other activities.
There were four women in the first graduating class un­ der Miss Hartridge. three of whom graduated: Dorothy Burke (Mrs. Henry P. Marshall), Winifred Rapalje (Mrs. Fred­ erick Martin Smith) and Grace Otteson (Mrs. Riley McCon­ nell). Verna McCutcheon (Mrs. Walter Logan) did not gra­ duate.
Mrs. Marshall maintained a long-standing interest in the school. Her great-nice was there while I was. and she point ed out that Mrs. McConnell s great nieces, Marcia and Cyn thia VanBuren. were attending Hartridge when she replied to a questionnaire in the late 1960's.
Miss Hartridge operated a school for young women from all over the United States, a school highly respected for its standards. Its early report card provided room for marks in Greek. Roman. Medieval. English and American history, ge­ ography, rhetoric, grammar, reading, spelling, writing, Greek. Latin, French or German, trigonometry, geometry, algebra or arithmatic.”
There were also categories for behavior and neatness.
Miss Hartridge set high standards for herself and those around her. Early boarding school regulations, for instance, noted that there was to be "No boisterousness anywhere at any time.”
These regulations concluded: "Our class of girls naturally stand back on the stairs or in a doorway for older people and have pretty table manners and are well-behaved at church.”
This was not window-dressing, for graduates of the Har­ tridge School went on as leaders. At one point the Courier- News noted that the president of the students' association and the athletic association at Vassar were Hartridge graduates, as were the president of the senior class, a head of house, and a film star at Smith, the head of a hall at Radcliffe. and the president of student government at Wil­ son.
"All 13 of Hartridge applicants for Vassar last year were accepted without question,” the article said, going on to list the young women who were awarded regional and national scholarships at Vassar and Radcliffe "without examination.” "Almost all" were doing distinguished work.
There were Shakespearean plays every other year — full productions with professional coaching, professional make­ up. an orchestra from Newark, as well as Saturday night dramatics for the boarding students every week when they acted out the great literature that was read to them that day.
There was a strong tradition of community service. On their own. or rather under the careful eye of Miss Hartridge. Hartridge students raised the money to begin a children’s ward at Muhlenberg Hospital and annually ran a fair to support this effort.
Charles Digby Wardlaw joined the Leal faculty in 1911 and immediately began his efforts to promote organized athlet­ ics.
He bought the good will of the school in 1916.
Leal lived until October. 1936.
Wardlaw said of him. "He was one of the finest gentle-
men-schoolmen this country ever produced. He was a won­ derful scholar and dedicated teacher, who instructed all day. every day, through recess and at night to see that his boys made good.”
Despite these kind words, there was apparently acrimony between Leal and Wardlaw. In a recent interview. Prentice Horne, headmaster of the Wardlaw School after it became a non-profit institution and then W-H head, said that as a condition of the sale of the Leal School. Leal insisted that Wardlaw make no reference to the fact that Wardlaw’s school succeeded Leal's.
W ardlaw almost immediately violated this agreement, and. ironically, it may be this very transgression that keeps Leal's name alive ICO years after he founded his school in the Wall Street suburb that boasted more than 100 millionaires.
But. of course. John Leal’s clock sounds in the office of the current headmaster as it will for many years hence.
After purchasing the Leal School in 1916, Charles Digby Wardlaw wasted little time in establishing his own school over which he would preside for 43 years. He bought a building at 1038 Park Avenue, a couple blocks north of the present Muhlenberg Hospital. At that time the property was on the outskirts of Plainfield, at the end of the trolley line.
Because of its location, the school was able to maintain 4 football fields. 3 baseball diamonds and 6 tennis courts, all of which were extolled in a full page ad announcing the new school in the local press. Shortley after acquiring the new plant. Mr. Wardlaw built a modern gymnasium which was considered to be one of the finest in the state at that time. It had windows on four sides and was amply equipped with the latest and best athletic apparatus.
With a faculty of 6 which included his wife Charlotte as art instructor and the venerable Harriet Holloway as geogra­ phy teacher. Mr. Wardlaw continued the pursuit of aca­ demic excellence established by his predecessor. Mr. Leal. He was one of the early proponents of the country day school movement in the United States and wrote many articles on the advantages of having children remain with their families instead of going off to boarding schools. Mr. Wardlaw was apparently ahead of his time in this respect, as many of his students went on to attend the finest prep schools in the Northeast. They were well prepared for these schools as attested by the many letters of commendation sent to Mr. Wardlaw by the headmasters of those institu­ tions.
The Wardlaw School was a firm believer in a complete education that included vigorous and mandatory participa­ tion in physical and athletic activities. The first school brochure stated that "a restless boy is a mischievous one" and that "every boy above second grade must spend 2 hours daily in recreative games.”
Miss Hartridge objected to the image that her school served only the daughters of the rich and saw to it that there were always scholarships for talented young women whose families could not afford the fees. Sometimes she provided that money herself.
But also, early on. she fostered the idea of alumnae par­ ticipation — in rolling bandages during the Great War and in offering scholarships.
Also, early on. Miss Hartridge saw the need to establish the school she loved on a permanent basis. In 1931 she began the shift to a non-profit institution, which was accomplished in 1933 with F. Seymour Barr. Henry W. Brower. Miss Har tridge. E. Kendall Morse. Murray Rushmore and John P. Stevens Jr. as trustees.
At almost the same time she notified the board of her intentions to sooner or later stepdown as head, and began her own search for women who would carry on her strong tradition.
By now, in 1933, the school had announced plans for a country day school, full of air. light, healthful activity and intense scholarship.
In 1930 a juniper tree was planted next to Pan in the open green. "Martin with spade and watering can did the heavy work." The statue of Pan had toppled by my time at Har­ tridge. but that juniper probably still stands.
In 1934 Rosemary Evans and Camilla Haywood, both H.S. '33. added "Hail Hartridge” to the school's heritage, fol­ lowed in 1936 by the first presentation of the Wigton Cup and 1937 the H Pin.
Prentice Horne recalls that the Park Avenue school was literally bursting at the seams during the 1931-1932 school year when he attended Wardlaw. The excellence of the faculty was evident in his teachers, who included Marian Kilpatrick in math. Paul Troth in English and Madamoselle Escoffier in French. In 1932, Mr. Wardlaw purchased the Strong residence at 1030 Central Avenue. A beautiful Geor­ gian mansion that was architecturally significant when con­ structed in 1896, it would serve as the home of the Wardlaw School until the move to Inman Avenue in 1969.
Mr. Wardlaw maintained the school as a privately owned proprietary institution in contrast to a non-profit incorpo­ rated entity. Nonetheless he was substantially aided by many friends of the school in relocating to Central Avenue. Most significant was the donation of the beautiful new gym by the Laidlaw family.
Admist the country’s worst depression, the school contin­ ued to grow and develop in many fields during the 1930's Mr. Wardlaw’s twin sons. Dig. Jr. and Fred joined their father in the new school after graduating from the Universi­ ty of North Carolina. By 1933 the enrollment had pushed past the 100 mark. In 1937. Mr. Wardlaw acquired a nursery school and operated it in the old gym at the Park Avenue school.
During the 30's. Wardlaw fielded outstanding athletic teams in the major sports of football basketball and base ball. In addition opportunities to pursue track, boxing, fenc ing. gymnastics and marksmanship were offered to the students. Each spring, the baseball team would travel south and play college level teams. One of Mr. Wardlaw's proudest moments had to be in 1938 when his boys beat his alma mater, the North Carolina freshmen. 9-3 on the tar heels own turf.
By the end of the decade. Wardlaw had truly reached a zenith of accomplishments. For four consecutive years, vir tually the entire school put on an elaborate Gilbert & Sullivan
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