'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.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Abbot Academy, then called Abbot Female Academy, was incorporated Feb. 26, 1829; Moravian Brothers established schools for girls, Bethlehem, Pa., 1749; Rev. Joseph Emerson opened seminaries for girls in Byfield, Saugus, and Wethersfield, 1815; charter obtained for Adams Academy, Derry, N. H., 1823; Miss Lyon's seminary, Ipswich, 1828; Bradford Academy limited its work to girls, 1836; Mount Holyoke, 1835; Vassar College, Smith College, and Wellesley College later, but dates are uncertain, as confusion results from lack of definiteness as to whether they represent the year of founding, opening, or incorporation.
[D] Miss Sarah Abbot, Founder of Abbot Academy, Andover, was born in Andover, Oct. 3. 1762; married Nehemiah Abbot, first Steward of Andover Theological Seminary, often called Divinity College; died in 1848, in the house on Andover Hill, occupied for many years by the family of Dr. Samuel C. Jackson, and now the residence of Prof. E. J. Hincks; buried in the cemetery of the South Church, Andover.