Celebrating 175 years of service in 2017, Saint James School is an independent boarding and day school. Founded in 1842 as the College and Grammar School of St. James's, the School is a coeducational college preparatory school and the oldest Episcopal boarding school in the United States founded as a boarding school proper. Saint James was the second iteration of a most successful scholastic vision and method brought to reality on Long Island in 1828 by William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877). The founding Rector of Saint James was Muhlenberg's principal disciple and right-hand man for thirteen years before Muhlenberg sent him to Western Maryland to extend the mission. The models established at Flushing and College Point, Long Island, and in St. James, Maryland, were the mother lode for much subsequent prospecting. Racine College in Wisconsin, St. Paul's School, Concord NH, St. Mark's, Southborough MA, and many other schools were founded or reinforced by persons shaped professionally at Saint James in Maryland.
Intentionally limiting enrollment to less than 250 students, the purpose, ethos, and daily life of Saint James is not unlike the way of life that made the great schools favored by parents in the first place. (The old famous American boarding schools were in fact modeled on Saint James in the beginning. St. Paul's, Concord, was founded by Jacobeans. The first headmaster of St. Mark's, Southborough, was sent from Saint James to Massachusetts. Peabody of Groton, Diman of St. George's, Father Sill of Kent -- they saw Muhlenberg and Kerfoot as the pioneers of a scholastic model they deeply admired and would emulate and improve.)
Religion is still important at Saint James. The formation of the Christian character matters at Fountain Rock. Servant leadership is valued. Requiring each student to participate in all co-curricular programs -- the arts, sports, service to others -- means that each will see the world through different lenses, expanding the horizons of each person. If a school should pursue truth, and if truth is a large thing and not a small thing, then one's education must reflect this assumption: The means to the experience of truth must be multiplied in the life of the school, and truth must be approached and experienced in the many different ways we find it. The Headmaster says of theater, for example: "It keeps you productively busy. It's an exercise of the heart and the mind. It it an introduction to beauty and poetry and rhythm."
Administration
Boarding Life at Saint James - What is Saint James like outside of the classroom? See what it's like to live here through the eyes of our students. Filmed & Produced by Toot Toot Pictures for Saint James School.
Saint James is one of twenty-four Episcopal Schools in the Diocese of Maryland. The School is governed by a Board of Trustees. A Prefect Council, made up of ten seniors elected by the students and the faculty, upholds the traditions of Saint James and assists faculty members and the Headmaster in the day-to-day operations of the School. Of this group, one member is elected Senior Prefect, and he or she leads the Prefects. The Sacristan Council and Vestry are responsible for the upkeep of the Chapel and assist in the liturgy of daily services. The Senior Sacristan is the second most prestigious position for a student on campus, following the senior prefect, and is the chief student assistant to the Chaplain. Saint James School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and the Maryland State Department of Education. The School is a member of: the National Association of Independent Schools, the Association of Independent Maryland Schools, Cum Laude Society, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and the National Association of Episcopal Schools.
Faculty
The Faculty and Coaches of Saint James School are selected for their well-roundedness, academic attainments, teaching experience, love of teenagers, and manifest commitment to the unique and fulsome kind of educational experience favored by the Trustees and Headmaster of the School. The typical teacher at the School is able to "connect' with teenagers and form good relationships with them. Each member of the Faculty sets out to educate the whole person and supports his or her peers in their work in the arts, athletics, service learning, and a rigorous academic program. If it is expected that every student participates in every extra-curricular activity in each trimester term -- Daily Chapel and dorm responsibilities, sports, fine and performing arts, and community service (to name a few) -- the students must have teachers and coaches enthusiastic about this approved way of life.
The Faculty is ably led by the Headmaster of twenty-five years, the Revd. Dr. D. Stuart Dunnan. Dunnan was appointed Rector & Headmaster of Saint James School in June 1992. A teacher and chaplain at both the school and university levels before he came to Saint James, he is one of the few Episcopal priests still serving as the head of a secondary school in the United States. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., and an Alumnus of St. Albans, Father Dunnan holds bachelor's and master's degrees in history from Harvard University and master's and doctoral degrees in theology from Oxford University in England. He also served as a Priest-Librarian of Pusey House, Oxford. Dunnan is a gifted preacher and has taught AP European History.
Academics
An unofficial motto of Saint James School might be, "High Standards and Hard Work in a Helping Community." The School is rigorous academically but the community is there to support and encourage every member. The curriculum is a rich and challenging course of study. Every means is employed to help each student attain the high standards. Good writing skills, critical reading, confidence in the face of a math challenge, state-of-the-art "STEM" courses: These prepare a student not only for selective college admission but for the active business of life. Saint James students do very well in terms of college placement. Advanced Placement courses are offered for able and interested students who wish to pursue subjects in greater depth. Electives are offered to upper-form students for enrichment and the exploration of new interests.
Campus
Saint James School is situated in a lyrical, bucolic countryside. The Georgian-style buildings rest on 100 acres (0.40Â km2) lovely farmland containing a natural spring, fields, and streams. Total acreage exceeds 800 acres. The School lies 5 miles (8.0Â km) southwest of Hagerstown and is approximately 70 miles (110Â km) from both Baltimore and Washington, D.C..
- Claggett Hall: The largest boys dorm on campus, Claggett houses over 60 fourth, fifth, and sixth formers as well as several faculty members. The building also contains the Headmaster's Office, Business Offices, the Office of Admissions, and St. Luke's, the Claggett Hall Common Room.
- Kemp Hall: Kemp Hall is the campus student center, containing the school bookstore, mailboxes, snack bar, and Offices of Development, Communications, Ping Pong, and Alumni relations.
- Powell Hall: This is the main academic building with over 20 classrooms. The Assistant Head of School, the Academic Dean, and the Director of College Counseling are also housed in Powell. Currently, Powell Hall is attached to the new Barabra Fulton wing, which was recently dedicated on April 25, 2008. The new Fulton wing also houses the tutoring center on campus and the Dean of Students' Office.
- John E. Owens Library: Built in 1997, the library holds more than 20,000 volumes, 50 periodicals, and provides Internet access. The lower level contains the history department classrooms and the School archives.
- Kerfoot Refectory: Completed in 2001, this is the School's dining hall, where students eat all of their meals. Meals are eaten family style four days a week for lunch and dinner, and served buffet style for breakfasts and weekends. In addition to the main meal, there is always a sandwich and salad bar.
- Laidlaw Infirmary: The Infirmary is a refuge for ill students and contains two rooms with beds, a bathroom, and the Nurse's Office. A School physician is on call 24/7.
- Cotton Building and the Bowman Fine Arts Center: The Fine Arts Center houses the auditorium, which seats about 300. This building includes music study rooms, the art studio/yearbook room, and a Choir room. The Mummer's Society puts on several plays every year, including a fall drama, a spring musical, senior-directed plays, and the Christmas Tradition of St. George and the Dragon.
- Alumni Hall: Alumni Hall houses two wrestling rooms, two dance studios, a weight room, locker rooms, and a field house. The field house contains three basketball courts which can be converted into four tennis courts or two volleyball courts.
- The Chapel: Every morning, the students gather in the chapel for a fifteen-minute service or, on Wednesdays, an hour-long Communion service. Students can help in the chapel by serving as acolytes, readers, ushers, or choir members.
- Mattingly Hall: A dorm for third and fourth form boys. Hershey Hall was renovated in the spring of 2006 and renamed Mattingly Hall in honor of Mr. John M. Mattingly '58. Mattingly Hall also houses a government-owned Cold War communications bunker in the basement.
- Onderdonk Hall: A dorm for second and third form boys.
- Holloway House: The fourth, fifth and sixth form girls' dorm.
- Coors Hall: A dorm for second, third, and fourth form girls.
- Bai Yuka: The school's water source, the Bai Yuka is a beautiful natural spring that runs through campus and whose name is Native American for "fountain rock".
- Biggs Rectory: The headmaster's house was completed in 2002.
Notable alumni
- James L. Holloway III Former Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral USN, Ret.
- James M. Jasper Author, professor, and sociologist
- Foster MacKenzie III, Deceased Boogie/Rock/Blues Musician
- Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1856, naval strategist.
- Daniel Robinson, Jr., American steel-string guitarist
- Robert Jenkins Onderdonk 1870, Texas artist and father of Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922), the "father of Texas painting"
- Bertram Wyatt-Brown (1932-2012), Milbauer Professor of History, University of Florida; noted Americanist and author of Southern Honor.
References
- David Hein, editor. Religion and Politics in Maryland on the Eve of the Civil War: The Letters of W. Wilkins Davis. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009. (An updated version of a book published in 1988 in hardcover as A Student's View of the College of St. James on the Eve of the Civil War.)
- Herbert B. Adams, editor. History of Education in Maryland, 1894, pp 258â€"260 by Reverend Hall Harrison
- Life of the Right Reverend John Barrett Kerfoot, D.D. L.L.D., First Bishop of Pittsburgh, by Hall Harrison, M.A., Vol. 1, pp. 46 â€" 48, published by James Pott & Co., New York 1886 (Google Books)
- Civil War Diary of Joseph H. Coit, Maryland Historical Magazine, volume 60. p 245 (edited by James McLachlan).
- James S. McLachlan, "American Boarding Schools: A Historical Study" (New York: Scribners, 1970).
- W.L. Prehn, "Episcopal Schools," The Praeger Handbook of Faith-Based Schools in the United States, Vol I, edited by Thomas C. Hunt and James C. Carper (Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford UK: ABC-Clio/Praeger, 2012); 76-89.
- W.L. Prehn, "Social Vision, Character, and Academic Excellence in Nineteenth-Century America: William Augustus Muhlenberg and the Church School Movement, 1828-1877." Ph.D dissertation, University of Virginia (2005). Chapters on Kerfoot and Saint James.
- The David K.M. Prehn Collection in the Saint James School Archives is a growing resource for the study of the Church school movement on both sides of the Atlantic and of high-quality faith-based education in general. The Collection features original primary documents or copies thereof related to W.A. Muhlenberg's model schools on Long Island; documents useful for the study of the schools founded by Muhlenberg's proteges, especially Kerfoot, Lloyd Breck, and Henry Coit of St. Paul's; histories of prep schools in the United Kingdom and the United States; biographies of Church school headmasters and other staff; and articles and monographs addressing the historical context and conditions in which the pan-Atlantic Church school arose. In this Collection the researcher may get a better idea of the relationship between the 19th-century "Church Revival" and the school-founding phenomenon.
References
External links
- Official St. James School Homepage