FOOTNOTES:
[B] Torrey's "History of Fitchburg," Fitchburg, 1836.
ABBOT ACADEMY.[C]
BY ANNIE SAWYER DOWNS.
ABBOT ACADEMY.
Joseph Cook says, "Andover, Mass., has founded several new Institutions. Under the elms on Andover Hill is a study, in which a prayer-meeting was once held weekly to devise ways and means of doing good. There originated the first religious newspaper. There began its existence an American Tract Society which now sifts its printed counsels, like the dew, over a hemisphere. There, in imitation of a Scottish custom, was instituted the American missionary monthly concert of prayer, in response to the wants of an American Missionary Society, also originating in Andover, and on whose operations now the moon goes not down by night nor the sun by day. There had its birth the American Education Society, which to-day rings its college bells all the way from Niagara to the Yosemite. There was commenced the American Temperance Society, which in our crowded cities has before it a work of which even wakeful eyes do not yet see more than a glimpse of the importance." It was, therefore, natural that the first incorporated school for the higher education of girls in this Commonwealth should find its birthplace in Andover; and that the first public meeting of which we have any record whose sole object was the education of girls, should have been held in its South parish, Feb. 19, 1828, at the house of James Locke, Esq. The meeting adjourned after voting "that it was desirable and necessary a female academy should be established in this place," leaving the matter in the hands of a committee who were to raise funds and see if a lot of land could be obtained. At the next meeting, on the 4th of March, only a fortnight later, this committee reported that the way was clear to draw up a constitution, buy a lot of land, erect a brick building two stories high, for which funds should be raised by subscription, and that the school should be put under the charge of trustees. These trustees, seven in number, were: Rev. Milton Badger, pastor of the South Church, Andover; Rev. Samuel C. Jackson, pastor of the West Parish Church, who served until his death, a period of more than fifty years; Samuel Farrar, Esq., treasurer of Phillips Academy; Hon. Hobart Clark, State Senator; Mark Newman, formerly principal of Phillips Academy; Amos Abbot, Member of Congress, and Amos Blanchard, succeeded in later years by his son, Rev. Dr. Amos Blanchard of Lowell. Drs. Badger and Jackson and Esquire Farrar were to draft a constitution, while Messrs. Clark and Newman were to serve as a building committee. But, alas! then, as now, it was easy to vote away money, but not easy to collect it; easy to order buildings begun, but hard to find any way to pay for them. So at a trustee meeting, July 4, 1828, it was voted that it was not expedient to erect a building for the Female Academy with their present means. At the Semi-Centennial of Abbot Academy in June, 1879, several persons were present who remembered the sadness and disappointment which settled down upon the hearts which had been so sanguine of success when the plan was first made public. But it is always darkest just before day, and on July 24, 1828, "most important information" was communicated at a meeting of the trustees. The first site selected had not been universally approved. A lady, daughter of Mr. Adams, then Principal of Phillips Academy, writes, "It was the determination to put the new academy on Main Street; but many Andover mothers were dissatisfied, as this was the street most frequented by Theologues and Phillips boys. My mother and Mrs. Stuart consequently drew up a petition requesting a change in location. Elizabeth Stuart (mother of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps) and I circulated said petition. When we had received a sufficient number of signatures, it was handed to the trustees, who deemed the 'objections formidable'; so a portion of the 'important information' was that Deacon Mark Newman had presented the enterprise an acre of land on School Street, and that Madam Sarah Abbot pledged one thousand dollars to be paid at her death." Esquire Farrar was ready to advance the money on such security, and it was gratefully voted to take the deed of Deacon Newman, and begin directly to build from a plan furnished by Mr. Goddard, Principal-elect. Mr. David Hidden of Newburyport contracted to do the work, being assisted by Mr. William Saunders of Cambridge, who, it is said, is proud to claim the honor of having made the columns which support the front portico. Professor Park, who came of age the year Abbot Academy was born, and who entered Andover Theological Seminary the autumn the Academy was building, and who often amused himself by walking upon the uncovered floor joists, adds his testimony to that of many contemporary notices which declare the completed structure, with its fine proportions and classic porch, to be not only the pride of the town but of Essex County.
So Abbot Female Academy fell into line with the other beneficent institutions established by men of kindred blood to its founder, and who, like her, were enthusiastic in their love for learning, passionate in their benevolence, and extraordinarily endowed with common sense.
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE PROPOSED BUILDINGS.
The act of incorporation was passed Jan. 25, 1829; and there is no record that any opposition was made or any encouragement offered, although all were aware that it was a pioneer enterprise, for a local journal says, "Abbot Academy is the first house built in New England by a corporation for the exclusive work of educating women." Madam Sarah Abbot not only pledged the one thousand dollars before mentioned, but advanced additional moneys from time to time when the exigencies threatened destruction; and so arranged her property before her death in 1848, that two years later, upon the 28th of February, 1850, the trustees came into possession of a sufficient sum to make the whole amount $10,109.04. Naturally enough the infant institution took her name, for, though Abbot Academy has received many donations since Esquire Farrar electrified her by his decided advice, "Surplus money! Use it to found an academy in Andover for the education of women!" she is still its largest as well as its first giver. The grand-daughter[D] of one Abbot, the daughter of another, and the wife of a third, she led a secluded life, unillumined by those opportunities for culture which she appreciated highly for others, and oftentimes, without doubt, like other great benefactors, half uncertain if the generosity, which to her more than frugal habits must have seemed excessive, was not as injudicious as it was unusual. For, as Rev. Phillips Brooks said at a meeting on behalf of Abbot Academy, in Boston, upon the 12th of January, at the time the school was founded, great ideas and great processes which have not yet begun to fulfil themselves had just begun to impress
themselves on men's minds. The old and the new existed together; and that Madam Abbot, without advantages of early education herself, could so entirely have appreciated them that she was willing to bestow her all upon the new scheme, speaks volumes for her strength and foresight. Her portrait, probably painted by T. Buchanan Read, still hangs on the wall of the pleasant hall built by her timely liberality; and women, scattered all the way from Maine to Japan, as they recall its sagacious features, quaint dress, and old-time air, say to their pupils, or record in their books, or whisper lovingly to the little children round their knees, that old Mrs. Abbot in far-off Andover was their real Alma Mater.
May 6, 1829, Abbot Academy opened with eighty-five pupils, from the little ones who did not know their letters, to young women of eighteen and twenty. One who was there says, "Henrietta Jackson (afterwards Mrs. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin) sat at my left." Another describes the three gifted daughters of Professor Stuart, one of whom became the first wife of Professor Phelps and the mother of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, who in her turn has likewise been a pupil of the school. As we look over the list of the girls who went in and out under the Ionic porch of the new academy, we see they were by inheritance and nature well worthy the broad and generous course of study marked out for them by Dr Jackson, Samuel Farrar and the others. That course, of more than half a century ago, was as wide as any laid down in the women's colleges to-day; and although it was gradually modified in conformity with popular sentiment, still it speaks well for the sagacity and practical wisdom of the trustees. It is pleasant to note that Dr. Jackson lived to see his theories of women's education carried into practice by the establishment of colleges for them. Mr. Charles Goddard, grandson of Dr. Langdon, president of Harvard University, was the first principal of Abbot Academy. He was tall and fine looking, with refined and polished manners, worshipped by the little girls and greatly admired by the older ones, who, as one of their number writes "woke up wonderfully and enjoyed their studies exceedingly." "It was the universal opinion," says another, "that the advantages offered by Abbot Academy were very superior to anything in the region, and the building was considered commodious and elegant." French and German were taught by Dr. William Gottlieb Schauffler, whose romantic history and extraordinary musical gifts had already attracted much personal interest, and whose after career has made his name a household word from the shores of the German Ocean to the Stairs of the Bosphorus. Who wonders that he was a hero to those girls of fifty years ago? No theological student called upon them who had not some story to tell of his enthusiasm, daring or cleverness, and how eagerly must they have listened as the adventures of his magic flute were dwelt upon.
For twenty-one years Abbot Academy was under the charge of principals who were all college graduates and men of exceptional powers, uncommon cultivation, and thorough interest in their work. There was no fund (then as now it depended upon its fees, systematically as low as possible) to pay running expenses, and although its superior character as a school attracted as many pupils as it could accommodate it had a hard struggle to live. Very early in its existence it was evident that its great lack was a boarding-house for students from a distance, and many attempts were made to remedy the deficiency. If the principal had a family, he accommodated all he could; the trustees provided for several brief periods common tables, but generally they lived in private houses scattered about the village.
In 1853 two great events took place. The first was the offering of the principalship to a woman, and the second the resolve of the trustees "that it is indispensable to the prosperity, and even perpetuity of the Academy, to raise the sum of eight thousand dollars in order to procure suitable accommodations for the boarding pupils." Although the link may not be apparent, the second is really the logical result of the first for it was the enthusiasm of Miss Nancy J. Haseltine, who had accepted the position of principal, that urged them on with an irresistible force. She had come to them from Townsend, Mass., bringing a large following of pupils, and she found it impossible to provide for them satisfactorily, besides she saw clearly, as the Punchard Free School was opened in Andover that year, Abbot Academy must henceforth, as time has proved, depend chiefly upon patronage from out of town. There was no doubt about the situation of the new building, the only land the trustees owned was the acre given them by Deacon Newman in 1829; so they must set it in the rear of the Academy, but where could they get the money? Again, man's extremity was God's opportunity. Deacon Peter Smith, who offered the resolution, promised $1,000, Mr. John Smith $1,500, though in reality the brothers Smith gave before the house was finished enough to amount to $6,611. Justly was it named Smith Hall, for its whole cost was but seven thousand thirty-three dollars and sixty-four cents. But how was the great empty house to be furnished? Mrs. H. B. Stowe, then living in Andover, talked it over with Mrs. Dr. Jackson and Mrs. Professor Park and declared a festival should do it. And the festival did bring in $2,000 which furnished Smith Hall, and prouder, happier women never slept on Andover Hill than those who had so courageously and triumphantly carried the plan through.
Smith Hall has now been far more than a quarter of a century the home of the pupils of the academy, during that portion of the time when they are not attending to modern languages. Poverty has been its constant companion, sternly forbidding any unnecessary expenditures, yet it has always presented a cheerful, even tasteful appearance to strangers, as well as to the scores of girls who cherish its memory tenderly. The highly successful term of Miss Nancy J. Haseltine was all too brief, and after her, Miss Maria J. Brown and Miss Emma L. Taylor, sister of Dr. S. H. Taylor, filled the last three years of the first thirty of Abbot Academy. In September, 1859, the present principal, Miss Philena McKeen, entered upon her duties, bringing with her from Oxford, Ohio, her sister, Miss Phebe F. McKeen, as first assistant. Miss McKeen's management of affairs has been as wise as fortunate, as disinterested as successful, and Abbot Academy now stands among the very first of the girls' schools in the country.
The year 1862 is memorable as being the first of a series pleasant to chronicle. The institution was never in a higher condition of prosperity and usefulness, and when, in 1865, the trustees were perplexed by the good news that Smith Hall was insufficient for the number of pupils from out of town, Hon. George L. Davis of North Andover, who had for some time been one of their number, happily solved the difficulty by buying what was known as the Farwell estate, which joined the academy grounds on the north-east corner, and presenting it to the school. It was gratefully named Davis hall, and for many years has been occupied by all pupils studying French, that language being the one ordinarily spoken in the house. Previously Mr. Davis had added two acres of land in the rear of Smith Hall, and in the autumn of 1865 assisted in the purchase of the house belonging to Rev. J. W. Turner, on the southern boundary line of the grounds. That house, known first as South Hall, is now German Hall, German being spoken there in daily life, as French is at Davis Hall. To the fact that pupils studying these languages are thus kept out of the way of English speech for so large a portion of school hours is ascribed their unusual success in the difficult accomplishment of easy and correct conversation in a foreign tongue. The amount of Mr. Davis' benefactions up to 1879 was more than $7,000.
At the annual meeting in 1870, the trustees expressed special obligations to Mr. Nathaniel Swift, who had filled the office of treasurer since 1852, and congratulated him upon the wonderful transformation which he had wrought in the grounds. Instead of poor stony pasture land were broad smooth lawns, gravelled walks, flower borders, well-trimmed hedges, and rustic seats in charming spots, which told not only of the exquisite taste which ever guided his hand, but of his considerate thoughtfulness wherever the pleasure or comfort of the pupils was concerned. During the autumn of 1877, in order to secure the whole of the beautiful grove adjacent to their property, the trustees bought fourteen acres, thus making their real estate something more than twenty-two acres.
In the quarter of a century since Miss McKeen came to Abbot Academy, besides these imperatively needed houses, and these greatly prized acres, many valuable collections scientific, artistic and literary have been added; but, as ever, the great want is room, that the pupils may have the benefit of their use, which is impossible in their present scattered condition. The school observed its Semi-Centennial in June, 1879, and extended a hearty welcome to nearly three thousand of its alumnæ. The position was favorable for a survey of its present situation, its past history and its future prospects. Thorough examination of the past proved it had done excellent work; its list of pupils from all parts of the country, constantly increasing, showed it had taken deep root, but its future prospects appeared to be imperilled by its environment. On every hand it was crippled by want of buildings, want of endowment, want indeed of everything necessary to the comfort of a school. It was mentioned with amazement that half its collections were packed in boxes, its books were in every room of the building, wherever a shelf could find room, its pianos in the public parlors, and as for its boarding accommodations, so insufficient were they, it is a wonder to those familiar with the arrangements of the more recent girls' schools and colleges, that Abbot Academy has any boarding pupils at all. That it does, and frequently to its fullest extent, proves to the entire satisfaction of thoughtful persons the superior character of its instruction. Numerous highly valued and gratefully remembered gifts flowed in at the Semi-Centennial, but no sums sufficient to warrant the beginning of new buildings; so the teachers went on doing the best they could, spite of their great disadvantages, and their best was so good, that in 1884 the pressure became so strong, that several architects of Boston and vicinity entered into a free competition, submitting plans for the contemplated structures, and those drafted by Messrs Hartwell and Richardson, were accepted by the trustees, who appointed a building committee, consisting of Mr. Warren F. Draper, treasurer of Abbot Academy since 1876, chairman; Prof. J. W. Churchill, Andover, and Mr. James White, Boston. All these gentlemen are trustees, and in the heartiest sympathy with the high aims of the institution. The plans thus approved by the trustees were laid before the Alumnæ Association at a meeting in June, 1885, and enthusiastically approved. It was then found that they had in their treasury an accumulation of small gifts amounting to between seven and eight thousand dollars, which they had been collecting for the purpose, and the announcement that the trustees, at the first meeting held for the purpose, had subscribed $12,500, was deemed very encouraging. Since that time the trustees have increased their subscription two thousand dollars, and, through the efforts of Miss McKeen, Andover people have pledged about $10,000. In short, about $36,000 has been raised up to the present time. But new buildings will cost $100,000; perhaps, even with the most vigilant and judicious economy, $150,000. Where and how can the remainder be obtained? It occurred to many friends that it would be a pleasant and perhaps a profitable thing to have a social meeting in Boston to consider the question and inspect the plans. Mrs. Daniel Chamberlin (before marriage Miss Abbie W. Chapman), the popular and efficient acting-principal of Abbot Academy in 1853, and now president of its Alumnæ Association, kindly offered her pleasant parlors in Chester Square for the purpose. There on the 12th of January, was held a most delightful gathering, where the speakers were as choice as they were felicitous, and the company as rarely homogeneous as heartily interested.
Rev. Edward G. Porter of Lexington, one of the trustees, to whose indefatigable efforts the occasion owed a large portion of its success, called the meeting to order, and in the absence of Hon. Rufus S. Frost, who had been expected to preside, invited Professor Churchill to the chair. Professor Churchill whose gift of graceful speech never fails, introduced with a few delightful words Prof. E. A. Park, who has been president of the board of trustees more than twenty-five years. Professor Park responded: "The roof of the first edifice for Abbot Academy was laid the 28th of October, 1828. One week after that day I became a member of Andover Theological Seminary. I heard at once of the new and beautiful building; I think I was the first college graduate who walked on the floor of the present Academy Hall. It was said to be the best school edifice in Essex County or even the state of Massachusetts. Thus it began its existence with an aspiration in fine architecture. The style of this edifice is not so classical now as it was fifty-six years ago. When the academy received its new telescope it was too poor to provide it a suitable place. Therefore a dome was erected on the roof, which disturbed the symmetry of the Grecian architecture. The telescope does good service under the dome; but it is a sign of the indigence of the academy. When I reflect on the progress made by other institutions, I am astonished at the march of events. Twenty years after the founding of Abbot Academy, the little settlement at Chicago had not been heard of at Andover. When Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes received his first request to provide a missionary for that settlement, he asked a friend of mine, 'Where is Kick-a-go?' That little settlement of 'Kickago' has now received a fund of more than three million dollars for a city library. When our academy was founded, no man in Andover suspected that California would become one of our United States; but California has recently received twelve million dollars for the founding of a University. I was acquainted with the founder of Smith College in Northampton, and also with the founder of Abbot Academy. In some particulars the two ladies had a marked resemblance to each other. The founder of Smith College gave to it four hundred thousand dollars; the founder of Abbot Academy gave to it $10,109.04. Those four cents have played a conspicuous rôle in the history of the academy. They have been a sign of its indigence from its earliest to the present day."
"Abbot Academy has real estate valued at forty thousand dollars. Its apparatus, library, furniture, etc., are valued at ten thousand dollars. Its productive and available funds are valued at $33,636. This valuation was made two years ago; and it is now safe to say that the whole property of the institution, including real and personal estate, amounts to no more than ninety thousand dollars. The number of books in its library is 2,630. The number of its books relating to the fine arts is 233. The number of its art illustrations is 3,284. Still it has no convenient rooms for its books, pictures, casts. They are highly valuable, but are scattered in different and obscure places. It has a good cabinet of specimens illustrating conchology. Where is the cabinet? A large part of it I have never seen. It is kept in the boxes in which it was sent to the academy. Where is the scientific apparatus? Where is it?
"The rooms for the pupils are not large enough. Two students live by day and by night in one small chamber. The passages between the rooms are too narrow. The recitation rooms are too small and not well ventilated. The teachers have no adequate support, and could readily obtain much larger salaries for far less work in other institutions. For such reasons the academy asks for an enlarged endowment. It needs $150,000 for its new buildings. Thus far it has received promise of only $36,000. If it receive a generous increase of funds it will flourish; if it does not, it will not flourish as it should. Other institutions will attract its scholars. We cannot expect that future instructors will have a spirit of self-denial equal to that of its present and past instructors.
"After his 7th of March speech, Daniel Webster said to the Bostonians, 'You have conquered your climate, you have now nothing to do but to conquer your prejudices.' He meant that New Englanders had overcome the laws of nature, which had provided them with little except ice and granite; and nothing was left for them to conquer except their prejudices against the system of slavery. Now the teachers of Abbot Academy have conquered themselves, and there is nothing left for them to subdue except the laws of nature. They cannot subdue these laws. They cannot resist the attractions which other institutions have received from large funds, commodious dormitories, and suitable lecture-rooms and halls. The two Misses McKeen have devoted a high degree of skill and energy to the upbuilding of this institution; but they have had a superior ancestry. They inherited strength and fortitude. They descended from the sturdy men and women who settled Londonderry, New Hampshire.
"James McKeen of Londonderry was connected by marriage with James McGregor, the first minister of that town, who was a remarkable man. He was asked to leave his New Hampshire parish and go to the First Presbyterian Church in New York city. He declined. Londonderry was a more promising field for usefulness than New York. Londonderry has since succumbed. By the aid of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, New York has gone ahead.
"A traveller walking through Fifth Avenue and then through the roads of Londonderry can detect the superiority of New York with the naked eye. Unless Abbot Academy receive a larger and richer endowment than it now has, it will be to other institutions what the New Hampshire township is to the commercial emporium of our land.
"Why not allow our academy to decline? What special reasons are there for giving a new impulse to it? We ask for our new buildings because our academy is the oldest incorporated institution in the land for the higher culture of young ladies exclusively. Its age gives it a title to support. The antiquity of a school is a rich treasure to it. Scores of matrons, teachers, missionaries, have been trained in this school, and have performed signal services in our Western settlements, in Constantinople, in Japan, and in other distant parts of the world. The affections of these pupils are still entwined around this ancient academy. Again, we need our new buildings as monuments to the past services of teachers who have adorned and honored the school. Their example of faithful work and of exemplary self-denial ought to receive a visible and fitting memorial.
"Still another reason is that the endowment for which we ask will encourage future instructors to imitate the example of their predecessors. I have been conversant with many schools, I have not known one in which the principles of mental and moral philosophy, of the English and the Latin language, and of the fine arts have been more thoroughly and faithfully studied than in Abbot Academy. We do not expect there will ever be a theatre or an opera in the neighborhood of our academy; but we do expect that if we can obtain the pecuniary aid which we need, our school will be the resort of ladies who will devote themselves with zeal and care to the study of science, and more than all to the study of the word of God."
Professor Churchill then spoke in a very forcible and interesting manner of the aims of Abbot Academy, its wish to emphasize the home as well as the school. In a second article upon the institution it is hoped his remarks will be given in detail in connection with a more extended consideration of the aim to which he referred. Mr. Hartwell, for Messrs. Hartwell and Richardson, then explained the principal points of their plans, drawings of which were hung upon the walls. He concluded by expressing the heartiest interest in the academy and a most earnest wish for the success of the good plans in its behalf. Mr. Porter read a letter from Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, a portion of which follows:—
Abbot Academy has no superior. Its graduates go forth fitted for life's true work. The education they have received has been admirably adapted to form both mind and heart. It has had the social, intellectual and spiritual elements in due proportion.... I have sent six daughters to Abbot Academy and do not fear to compare the result as seen in their training, with the results attained in any other institution of our land, provided the persons selected are of equal natural gifts. The missionary work of Abbot Academy has been wide in extent and noble in character, both at home and abroad; and should be understood by friends of missions. It cannot be spared; its work, its history, its example, make it one of our choicest schools for the education of women, and I pray God it may be abundantly, richly endowed.
Mr. Edwin Reed of Cambridge, who married an Abbot Academy graduate, after felicitous compliments to the school, made a graceful, sparkling speech, from which we quote,—"The wise, judicious, painstaking administration of affairs there goes always to the roots of character, and gives us:—
'The perfect woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command.'
One uniform spirit of devotion to the highest good of all presides there, and impresses itself on every pupil. Indeed, I am not sure, if I had my way and could educate but one of the sexes, that I would not take the girls, and give them the colleges of the land, in preference to the present occupants. This would be hard on the boys, but, if I should 'turn the rascals out' and put their sisters in, it would be for this reason, great men always have great mothers. No great man ever lived who did not derive the native strength of his character directly from the mother who bore him. Mothers impress their qualities on their sons, and to get a generation of great men at the earliest possible moment, I would adopt the order of nature and secure first a generation of great mothers."
Dr. McKenzie spoke affectionately of the academy and its toilsome growth, saying that almost every object in the school had its history. He referred to the great force of the demands made by schools and colleges, and said that it was a sign of health and vigor when a school asked for better accommodations, because it had wider opportunities for usefulness. Mr. Porter proposed a committee to attend to the matter in this section, as follows, Rufus S. Frost, James White, Edwin Reed, C. F. P. Bancroft, Mrs. Daniel Chamberlin, Miss Annie Means, Miss Caroline A. Holmes, Miss Josephine Wilcox and Mrs. Laura A. W. Fowler. The committee was subsequently enlarged by adding the names of Rev. Edward G. Porter and Miss Mary E. Fowle. After the business the meeting adjourned to the dining-room, where Mrs. Chamberlin had thoughtfully and kindly provided a delicious entertainment, which fitly ended the delightful afternoon.
The Rev. Phillips Brooks acknowledged his kinship to the founder of Abbot, and in substance said: "No institution so takes on personality as a school. I see the various colleges almost as if they had features, and we may have some such feeling regarding Abbot Academy. Then there is so much in the quality of an old institution, if it keeps abreast of the times. The period of the founding of Abbot was an interesting one. It was a time when old ideas were being left behind and a new thought was just taking the place of the old. Great processes, which have not yet begun to fulfil themselves, had just begun to appear. No one can think of the academy without feeling grateful for that religious character which it is easier for an old school to keep than for a new one to acquire. Then, too, there is an advantage in its location, for there is much economy and much value in the educational atmosphere of a town like Andover."
The plan provides for four buildings; the main or central one, where the family life will be carried on, connected by corridors with the smaller French and German Halls, and containing, not only parlors, school offices, dining-rooms, and suites for teachers and pupils; but a beautiful library, a spacious reading-room, and upon its third floor, commodious music-rooms shut off from each other and the corridors by walls and doors of such construction that sound cannot pass through. French and German Halls furnish each a family sitting-room cheery with open fires and charming with artistic finish; suites for pupils and teachers, but neither kitchen nor dining accommodations, as all meals are to be taken in the main building. To this purpose the western front of the lower or basement story has been devoted. The young ladies coming from the language houses pass by separate staircases to their own dining-room on the north and south side of the central one, where the English-speaking pupils sit. These side dining-rooms can be shut off or thrown into the central apartment at will, and in this way freedom for the foreign language is secured and the whole number of pupils centralized; a more economical arrangement than the present one of three separate kitchens. Indeed, apart from economy, and outside the great advantage this plan affords to the students of French and German, the Faculty of Abbot Academy emphatically prefer the division of the school into distinct families; the cottage system insuring in their opinion much greater certainty of health, and opportunities for the direct personal influence important in the development of character. The fourth building is the academy, where prayers and recitations will be conducted, and where public gatherings will be suitably accommodated. The three living-houses are arranged for one hundred and twenty-five pupils only, two pupils occupy single beds in one bedroom and sharing a parlor. The architecture is after the eleventh century Romanesque; the material brick, with freestone trimmings, and the effect of all simple, suitable, dignified.