Page 15 - 1983 Wardlaw Hartridge

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atmosphere of academic success and leadership which con­ tinues today.
Also. 40 years later, the study hall remains a study hall for sixth graders, a place of intense concentration during ex­ ams and also an occasional classroom, especially for one seventh grade math section.
The "Pine Cone" housed the second through fifth grades and the "Mushroom" nursery through first grades, an ar­ rangement which remained in effect until the late 1950’s.
Another major move came on Monday, May 2, 1940, when the trustees of the Hartridge School and the trustees of The Plainfield Country Day School announced a merger which would take effect in September. 1940.
According to Barbara Hitchings, Mrs. Georgianna Hoad- ley Smith Breese, an old Plainfield figure whose father was with the Stock Market, founded the P.C.D.C. in 1933.
Miss Hitchings joined as head teacher through the con­ nection of the Child Education Foundation in New York, an organization which helped organize the Plainfield school and the place where Miss Hitchings trained.
Miss Hitchings was graduated from the University of Maine in 1924. received a diploma from the Child Education Foundation in 1926, and an A.M. from New York University School of Education in 1948, having specialized in the field of school psychology.
Before coming to Plainfield. Miss Hitchings was director of the nursery school of Bowling Green Neighborhood House. New York, and organized the nursery school of the Mary C. Wheeler School in Providence. For seven years she was in charge of the education program for the Plainfield Country Day School. During the summers of 1933 to 1938 she was in charge of the Educational Therapy Department of Babies' Hospital in New York.
Located in the big old Otterson house at 1333 Evergreen Avenue, the school was based on Montessori principles and accepted boys and girls.
The school opened with children from nursery school through sixth grade and added a grade each year until 1940 when two young women graduated. There were 70 students enrolled at the time of the merger, most of them in the preschool and elementary grades.
Miss Hitchings said that a beech tree on the school prop­ erty is still standing, although the houses have been torn down.
A squash court in the Otterson house was just right "for
storing outdoor equipment and playing in on rainy days. The big sand box went to Hartridge. as did the big blocks for building."
All of the furniture in the Mushroom came from Evergreen Avenue, and much playground equipment including swings behind the Mushroom, which weren't replaced until 1981.
Miss Elsie Goddard, who had joined the Plainfield Country Day School in 1939 as co-director with M iss Hitchings, came to Hartridge with the merger, as did most of the faculty, trustees and students.
At Hartridge, Miss Hitchings and Harriet Sleeper were chosen as associate principals by Miss Hartridge, while Frances Hurrey was named principal. A s M iss Hitchings remembers it. each was paid $1,200 for her work.
Just as furniture, books and supplies were on the move from the Plainfield Country Day School on Evergreen Ave­ nue to The Hartridge property on Plainfield Avenue, so too was all of the equipment from the Hartridge building at West Seventh Street and Arlington Avenue, a building bought by the Plainfield Red Cross.
On Wednesday, Sept. 25, 1940, The Hartridge School re­ opened as a day school.
Much had changed when less than a year later Miss Mapelson died on July 25, 1941. Then Miss Hartridge died in her sleep on Thursday night. Sept. 24,1942, at her apartment. 235 East 73rd Street. New York.
The news came as a shock to hundreds of former students and former associates in Plainfield. She had been expected to visit in town with two members of the faculty the follow­ ing weekend.
Funeral services were held in Savannah, and Miss Har­ tridge was buried in the family plot in Bonaventure Ceme- tary. Savannah. The memorial service for Miss Hartridge was held on Oct. 12. 1942. at the Crescent Avenue Church in Plainfield.
Trustees, faculty and students of The Hartridge School, as well as former teachers, alumnae and friends, attended the four o’clock service on Sunday.
Miss Amy L. Reed of the English department at Vassar College represented the Associate Alumnae of Vassar. and Miss Harriet L. Hunt, principal of the Kent Place School in Summit, represented the Headmistresses Association of the East, both groups with which Miss Hartridge was active.
All praised M iss Hartridge for her foresight as an educa­ tor and an administrator. ,a molder of women s education. M iss Frances A. Hurrey took over as principal after the
Hartridge girls acting
1940 commencement. She lead the school for II years and is remembered for a number of accomplishments.
Among the most outstanding are: the organization of a student government which became one of the strongest features of the schooli evaluation and accreditation of the Upper School by the Middle States Association-, implementa­ tion of a pension plan for faculty; student and faculty par­ ticipation in the Buck Hill Conference of the Council for Religion in Independent Schools, an interest at Hartridge for more than 20 yearsi establishment of a standardized achievement testing program under the Educational Re­ cords Bureau-, and introduction of the evaluation of each new student with an individually administered intelligence test.
In a history of the Hartridge School published in The Hue and Cry in April, 1965, is the following note: "Miss Hurrey was gracious and charming. The school under her leadership had an atmosphere of friendliness that was felt by faculty and students alike. While guarding well the academic stan­ dard which Miss Hartridge had established, she added the gentleness and fun which were part of her personality. Her sympathetic understanding and enthusiastic interest in the girls and all they did was reflected by their devotion to her and to the school. She was indeed a very happy choice as principal.”
Although the United States was not yet at war. the school had in its incoming student body several British refugees who studied at Hartridge on partial scholarships offered by the school. One such student was Marian Vans Agnew of Truro, Cornwall, England, a high school student who resided with her cousin, Mrs. William B. Jupp. at 915 Kensington Avenue in Plainfield.
War changed everyone’s life. The usual theory was that school girls would suffer least disruption, and while this was generally true, there were differences.
When the labor shortages became acute, the girls took over major and minor cleaning chores in the classrooms and halls. They swept floors, emptied wastebaskets, washed blackboards, dusted chairs and desks.
Once again, all were members of the Junior Red Cross, the organization Miss Hartridge founded nationwide. In addi­ tion to annual donations, the girls voted to go without des­ sert in the lunchroom one day a week, filling up on rolls to help them last until supper and saving the nickels the des­ serts represented.
Red Cross projects also included knitting afghans, sewing, making scrapbooks and producing favors for the soldiers at Lyons Veterans' Hospital.
For its part, the service committee raised money by auc­ tions. Each girl and teacher brought something to school, anything from a can of soup to a safety pin. Each item was wrapped in secret and then auctioned off during assembly. No one knew what she was bidding for, but there was something about the crowd and the auction that really made people part with their money.
The spring production of the dramatic club was given to benefit the war effort.
On Dec. 9, 1946. Miss Frances Hurrey married Mr. Dixon C. Philips, the mayor of Plainfield, in Montclair, N.J. Inadver­ tantly. Mrs. Philips' marriage and the fact that she remained head of the school may have been a first for Hartridge. for unmarried teachers were virtually unknown at the time.
Mrs. Philips. Miss Hurrey at the time, had joined the faculty in 1934 and become head of the French department the next year.
As a member of the Head Mistresses Association of the East, she served on its Professional Standards Committee and was the representative from the association to the New York Cooperative Bureau for Teachers. She also served on the executive committee of the bureau. She was president of the Alliance Francaise and a member of the Monday Afternoon Club, the Plainfield College Club and the Mount Holyoke Club of northern New Jersey.
In the fall of 1950, two new clubs were started, a drama club under the direction of Mrs. Fred Wardlaw and a journal­ ism club, which produced a revised Wardlawsunior a couple of years.
The Class of 1948 re-instituted the year book after a gap of over 30 years.Yearbooks were issued in every subsequent year except 1950. In 1951. Mr. Wardlaw was approaching 70, and his strength, if not will, had been greatly drained by his personal and physical tragedies.
Fred Wardlaw, although a devoted and loyal son, did not have the desire to take over the active day-to-day running of the school. It was at this time that Mr. Wardlaw turned to Ralph Harris, a former teacher for a short period in the 30's, to assume the role of assistant principal.
Harris immediately rushed into the job with extreme vig­ or and enthusiasm. In a short period, he revitalized the school and literally kept it going until the sale to the Trust­ ees in 1959.
Harris, an indefatigable worker, was a combination busi ness manager, operations director, disciplinarian and athle tic director, among other things. He introduced soccer to Wardlaw. replacing six-man football which had been played in the late 4Cs. Sports teams became better organized and equipped during this period.
The Class of 1956 had ten members, the largest of the post
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Leal Basketball Team